A Couple Issues
by edwardfiend
Summary: Being a Werewolf is hard enough. Being mistaken as being in a relationship with your best friend? Well that just leads to some interesting conversations and situations. Gender Bender. Female Josh(Joss).
1. The first time

**A/N: Hey. So this idea would not leave me alone until I wrote it all out. As far as I know this hasn't been done yet for this fandom...so we'll see how it goes. This fic will have eight chapters. Please enjoy and take it for what it is, which is an exercise in creative fun. I do not own anything associated with Being Human (really going to need a disclaimer for this one as it goes on)**

The first time it happened, they had only known each other for a month. A month in which she still was trying to get used to the fact that her new friend (He was her friend right? She'd made that mistake once…completely awkward. As hell. Emily had never let her live the incident down…) was a vampire. As in a blood sucking, eternal damned of the night, I definitely don't sparkle in the sun, vampire. But he apparently didn't do that, again not the sparkling in the sun part, but the sucking peoples blood part. Or he didn't do that anymore; she didn't want to consider the implications of that, it was already weird enough, being what she was and knowing him. But he said he could help her; that they could help each other cope. He with his vampirism and she with her…wolfism? Lycanthropy? Werewolfism? She still wasn't sure what to call "it", although he called "it" her wolf. Like it was a pet; she just hoped he didn't decide that "it" should have a name; he seemed like he would do that for kicks. Regardless, he was helping her; had helped her to get a job, as a Nurse's Aid, at the hospital where he worked (a vampire working in a hospital? Yeah like that didn't have all kinds of potential for being a horrendous disaster) and she liked it; it was probably as close to being in the medical profession as she would ever get now and hey it was in a hospital so…that's something. By helping her though he had opened a whole can of worms, socially. Because everyone, from Tony the night Janitor to Lisa the ER Desk Clerk seemed to know that he had gotten her the job. And of course, they assumed that this meant something.

"So what's the deal with you and Aidan?"

She glanced up at Mike, the Orderly who was helping her turn over Mr. Navaro so he didn't develop bedsores. Thankfully, although not for him, Mr. Navaro was in a coma so he didn't, or rather couldn't, mind that they were talking over his unconscious body. Still, she thought it was fairly rude.

"I…I hope his uh, his daughter comes to visit him today. She hasn't been by in a week; the doctors say he should probably be waking up soon," she replied instead as she pulled the blankets back up over the man and then proceeded to exit the room. Mike was close on her heels though and didn't seem to take the hint that she didn't want to talk.

"But really," he persisted, as they walked down the hall. "Are you guys together or something? You're always eating lunch together and I've seen him give you a ride home."

She stopped and stared at him, mouth agape, blinking almost owlishly and thought, stalker much? But instead sputtered "wh... wha...what? Aidan and me…NO! I mean, god NO! We're just…friends?" it came out sounding like a question and she mentally face palmed. Good job, Joss, she thought, because awkward vehemence is always convincing.

Mike smirked, "Is he gay? I mean, cause I've seen when Harry Met Sally, and guys and gals, they can't just be friends."

She stared at him, thinking, guys and gals? Who even says that? "Aidan is…" but whatever she was about to say was cut off as the a fore mentioned man/vampire/ her only "friend" appeared behind Mike like he had sensed that he was a topic of conversation.

"Hey! Aidan!" her greeting was a bit too enthusiastic and Aidan smirked at her as he came to stand to the side of her.

"Joss, I was just looking for you. Mike," he nodded at the orderly, who was looking between the two of them almost speculatively.

"Aidan. Well I better get going, bedpans aren't going to empty themselves. See you Joss," he walked away, shaking his head slightly and she could just hear him mutter, "Friends my ass."

She could feel a penetrating gaze on her and she turned slightly to find Aidan still smirking, this time with a raised eyebrow.

"What?" she asked running a hand through her chin length sandy hair. This only caused Aidan's smirk to intensify, as he knew her well enough by now to know that she did that when she was uncomfortable or nervous.

"What?" he mimicked, crossing his arms, "What was that?"

"Why were you looking for me?" she asked instead. "I thought you were done for the day."

"Was he asking you out? Because if he was I think you should go for it. Although, admittedly Mike is a bit of a ladies man."

Joss rolled her eyes and stalked off down the hall towards the locker rooms; her shift was officially done and she had some preparations to make for the night ahead.

Aidan fell in step with her quickly, "Come on Joss, you have to get back on that horse sometime."

"Wow. Back on that horse? I cannot…I can't believe you just said that. Because bumping uglies with Mike is really going to solve my problems. And no, he wasn't asking me out, he was asking about you; he wanted to know if you were gay. So I think you might be a bit off base there with him being a ladies man. Unless the ladies are laddies."

Aidan had started to laugh, and now made a choking like sound as they stopped outside the locker room. "He asked if I was gay?" he asked voice lowered.

She shrugged, "It was implied. He wanted to know if you and I were…" she gestured between the two of them and he looked at her expectantly.

"If we were together…or whatever," she continued, feeling ridiculous. Aidan did have that effect on her though she'd noticed.

"Together, together? So you what, told him I was gay instead?"

Joss actually face palmed this time. "No, Aidan. I did not tell the nice Orderly that you were gay. I didn't really say much of anything, because what could I say? Oh, no Aidan's not gay; he's just a Vampire! We're not together either; he rescued me about a month and a bit ago from being brutally attacked by members of his coven, because hey, I'm a werewolf and that's what Vamps do for kicks; beat up werewolves!" she kept her voice low, but the hysteria was evident. Aidan just rolled his eyes; he was becoming used to her neurotic out bursts.

Joss huffed, Llike he would want to ask me out anyway."

"Don't," Aidan gripped her arm, and stared into her eyes seriously. "Don't do that. Don't sell yourself short."

She stared at him for a moment and then shook her head and shrugged out of his grip to push against the door of the locker room. "I'm not. I'm being realistic."

He looked at her almost sadly and she couldn't take it. She hated pity. "Anyway," she smiled slightly although they both knew it was fake, "I am going to go change and get my stuff so I can get ready for tonight."

Aidan nodded, "That time of the month."

She gave him a pointed look, but he just smirked slightly.

"Need me to drive you?"

She shook her head, "I'll walk. It's nice out anyway; it'll clear my head."

"I'll come get you in the morning."

"Right. Well. See YOU later." She went through the door of the locker room, leaving her vampiric friend to stare after her for a moment and then start to walk away. Just as he was nearing the corner of the hall and was about to turn, she stuck her head back out the door and yelled, "Bring me one of those sausage and egg bagels, without the sausage!"

He laughed and she disappeared behind the door again.

**Okay, so what do you think? Like I said, this idea would not leave me alone. I even stepped away from my other fic to write this, which is something that I wouldn't usually do. I would love to hear some thoughts about this; I am a bit nervous about it to be honest. I will post the second chapter soon.**


	2. The second time it happens

**A/N:Short chapter; the next one is longer I promise. Also, I really apprceciate the feedback so far, its made my day. :) And finally, on Joss'( Josh) name: When I decided to write this I needed a female name that was close to Josh, but still distinguishable. Joss came to mind right away, but I still wasn't sure so I did a Google search and found that Joss is considered both a short form for the name Josh and the name Jocelyn( or in this case Josslin).**

The second time it happens, well at least as far as she knows at the time, is when they decide to move in together. Realistically she knows that a man and a woman moving in together just yells relationship, but really its not like they go around holding hands or hugging or having really any type of physical contact that proclaims to the world that Aidan Wait and Josslin Levinson are together romantically. But of course, people are going to assume whatever they want no matter what you say.

So when their new potential landlord, Danny, assumed they were a couple she of course had to correct him immediately, even though she was still thinking about how his fiancé died. Granted, her comment about heads in the oven had been unwarranted.

"Look you two seem alright. I know the place isn't perfect, but it's a great place for a couple. It really is."

She had been looking at the house, which she had wanted so badly only moments before; badly enough that she had already started making mental plans for what they would need, and now was reconsidering even if there _was_ a view, but at his declaration that it was a great place for a couple she whipped back around.

"What?" she asked almost incredulously

"What?"

"Its okay," Aidan said patiently, almost nonchalantly, his arms crossed. She looked at him for a moment and he shrugged almost imperceptibly as if to say, what are you going to do? Next thing she knew Aidan was committing them to renting the place, after Danny said he didn't need a credit check. Well Aidan _had said_ his credit was crap.

"You want to start moving in tomorrow? Neither of us are working, we could probably just stay there tonight anyways," Aidan asked after they had gone over everything with Danny and received the keys to the house.

"Why does everyone think we are together?" Joss asked as they got in the car, completely ignoring his question about moving in. "Do we give off some kind of vibe. Are we omitting eau de couple? No wonder I never get asked out. Or even remotely checked out."

Aidan started the car and pulled away from the curb. "You get checked out plenty," he said as if it was the most ridiculous thing he had ever heard her say. It wasn't of course;she had said some pretty random things, not to mention done some. Like when she curtsied to the new nurse Cara…

Joss snorted, "Name one time that hasn't involved some patient trying to grab my ass. Because that doesn't count."

He seemed to be trying to think of a time but she didn't let him finish.

"See? Not happening."

He laughed lightly, "There have been times Joss. Look, we are just two friends moving in together, because it's mutually beneficial. Nothing more. This gets you out of the Econolodge and me…" he sighed, "So what if people want to think we're in a relationship. We're two good-looking, twenty something people, or in my case seemingly twenty something. At least they don't think your gay."

She laughed humorously and shook her head slightly. "You are never going to let that go are you? I'm pretty sure no one at the hospital thinks your gay anymore, especially not since you and Rebecca were flirting outrageously in the cafeteria."

Aidan's expression dimmed a bit at the mention of Rebecca, but she figured it was just because the nurse was still MIA and people kept talking about the two of them in the same breath. For one sick moment the idea that he might have something to do with Rebecca's lack of appearance entered her mind, but she pushed it down. Aidan said he was trying to stay on the wagon and she had to believe him or this thing they had, this idea of his to be normal, was never going to work.

"Okay. Fine. Yes, lets move in tonight. I'm tired of listening to the couple in the room beside mine fight every night and then have wild make up sex, screaming "Oh baby you know I like that" and "Right there sugarbear!"

"See, any neighbours we have now have got to be better than that!" he said, his mood seeming to shift again. She wasn't sure if he was faking; he did have countless years on her and she was sure he had perfected hiding his emotions.

"Yeah, until we try and eat one of them."


	3. The third really obvious time

**I do not own anything associated with Being Human ;) Mentions from S1 ep3. Enjoy the chapter!**

By the third or maybe fourth really obvious time, she had lost count of how many times it has actually been. There have been the times where Danny comes over to fix things, and he always seems to make some allusion to the fact that he thinks they are a couple. Then there are the people at work, who still seem to think they are just the "cutest couple". Not to mention when they first met Sally or rather when she tried to scare them by quoting the words to eighties power ballads and Joss mistook her for one of the druggies that sometimes hung out in the alley by the house, she had suggested that they were getting it on. Granted, in her case at least, it had only been the one time and Joss was pretty sure she was just doing that to annoy her, as having been perving on them since they moved in she obviously knew by then that they were definitely not together. But it was also the cashier at the grocery store who when Aidan went back to get her another steak, because they turned out to be on sale and the wolf just loved its steak, told her almost conspiringly that it was sweet of her boyfriend to go grab another one after she had lamented not getting more. Joss could almost forgive the cashier her misconception, because hey, she was a teenage girl and Joss of course had been a teenage girl at some point. Back in the day. When it was cool to say back in the day, if it ever was. She knew how hormonal they were; just look at her sister Emily.

Emily…who it turned out had practically interrogated Aidan as to his relationship with Joss when she found out they lived together. Aidan seemed to think it was funny and sweet that her little sister all but put the screws to him. It showed that she loved her and cared, he had told Joss when she tried to apologize on her behalf. Joss wasn't too sure; not that her sister loved her, she knew that, despite all that she had put her family through, despite almost having killed her sister in the basement of the hospital. No, she just knew Emily and she was sure by now her parents had the whole story of how she had run into her at the hospital and how her normally sweet and put together older sister had gone mad.

Joss thought moving in with Aidan was supposed to make her life a bit less stressful, but it seemed that it only increased her level of neurotic hysteria, especially on nights when she comes home to find half the neighbourhood in her living room.

"I should make a seven layer dip."

Joss looked at Aidan like he had lost his mind. He probably had. She had only been joking when she said they should invite the neighbours over to eat them. Mostly. "No."

As she tried to mingle, and only succeeded slightly better than Sally, who no one could see or hear, part of her, her OCD, was screaming that having all these people in the house was not good. For her sanity or the floors. Or her couch; had no one ever heard of wiping their feet at the door? Maybe she should put a mat down…

It was as she was considering this that she found herself in conversation with one of the neighbours.

"Jesse," he introduced himself from beside her.

"Joss," she replied. She was sure that wherever Sally had faded off too she was laughing at her awkwardness. Maybe she could go join her?

"So, I was kind of surprised that your boyfriend invited us all over here for this watch thing. You guys seem to keep pretty much to yourselves."

"Yeah well we're pretty busy…uh I mean," she paused, griping her beer more tightly. "Aidan's not my, not my boyfriend."

Jesse smiled as if that was what he had wanted to hear. From across the room she could feel Aidan's gaze on her, penetrating as always. He was probably making sure she wasn't embarrassing herself or doing anything that would be embarrassing or awkward, as usual.

"So cousin? Brother? One time lover? Stop me when I get there."

Joss laughed, feeling a little more at ease. Talking to guys was always hard for her; it was a miracle that she had ever been in a relationship long enough to get engaged. "We're just roommates. Friends. No loving going on here. We just live together and work together."

Jesse nodded, "So he's gay."

Joss almost spit out her beer, "god no!" Why did everyone assume Aidan was gay? "No, although that has been suggested before. No, we just are not attracted to each other like that, I mean he is good looking but…" she trailed off and quickly drained the rest of her beer to stop herself from talking. " Oh, would you look at that? Its empty! I'm just going to get another one." She started to slip away to the kitchen, but Jesse grabbed her hand and reached into her jeans pocket where her phone was just visible. Joss froze, not sure what to do. Who just reaches into a woman's pocket and grabs her phone? Had she been transported to one of those bad romantic comedies that Sally was so keen on watching? Was he going to try some Ryan Reynolds- esque line on her next?

"Here's my number," he said handing her back the phone. "You know, in case we end up paired up for this neighbourhood watch thing or something. It was nice meeting you Joss, I'll see you around." He walked away then and she stood there for a minute staring at her phone in her hand. She could practically feel Aidan's eyes drilling into her now and when she looked up it was to meet his questioning gaze. She looked back at her phone and then shook her head as if to dislodge her daze and went into the kitchen.

"He was totally checking you out. He wants a piece of that," Sally puffed into existence beside her at the fridge and Joss clutched her chest.

"How many times Sally! Seriously, you are going to give me a heart attack!"

Sally smiled apologetically and shrugged a bit. "Sorry. Seriously though, that boy was hinting really hard. He def liked what he saw. You should call him; it would do you good to get out, with a normal guy. Besides, at worst you might get some recreational loving."

Aidan chose that moment to enter the kitchen, carrying some empty beer bottles. Joss eyed them mentally adding beer to her grocery list, as it seemed she was now out. He set the bottles on the counter and then looked at her expectantly.

"You saw that right?" she didn't know why she was asking; she practically had a hole in the side of her head from all the staring he had been doing. " I mean, who does that?"

Aidan crossed his arms and leaned against the counter, looking only slightly amused. At least he wasn't smirking like he usually did or giving her the "awe what a cute puppy you are" look.

"He's smooth, I have to give him that. I mean the phone out of the pocket move is hard to execute without looking like your coping a feel."

"He was smooth," Sally agreed nodding from the other side of her. "If I could leave this house, I would so pop in on him for you and make sure he's not some pseudo serial killer in training or that he doesn't have a secret shrine dedicated to you. Although that could be flattering, in a creepy Scream, I know who killed me kind of way."

Joss sighed, "I am going to go make sure none of our neighbours are trying to commandeer our TV or the stereo. Or my Michelle Branch CD's." She moved back towards the living room, as Sally called out,

"Nobody wants the Michelle Branch, Joss!"

Joss sent her a very rude gesture, which only made the ghost laugh. Once she was out of the room, Sally turned to Adian.

"If I could hit you, I so would right now."

"Why?" asked, Aidan laughing slightly.

Sally put her hands on her hips and raised an eyebrow. "I saw the way you were giving Joss's potential one night stand the eye. If it were possible he would have caught fire. That girl deserves to be happy and that's not going to happen if your giving all the guys that talk to her creepy vampire looks."

"I was not," Aidan scoffed.

Sally looked at him pointedly and he rolled his eyes.

"I wasn't! I was just making sure she was okay; you know how awkward Joss can be. Like you said, she deserves to be happy."

"Yeah," Sally nodded, and the look she was giving him could only be called shrewd. "So do you. Maybe that's the problem, you're both trying to be happy separately." And with that cornel of wisdom the ghost faded out, probably to go through Joss' closet again.

Aidan sighed tiredly and stared at the kitchen floor pensively, not really taking in the cracked tiles. He knew exactly what Sally was getting at; the problem was that there was nothing he could do. Would do. Sure he thought Joss was good-looking; beautiful even, if she brushed her hair and he didn't really mind the werewolf smell anymore. And she was funny, in a weird sort of way; her neurotic antics and OCD were highly amusing at times. But she was also becoming the most important person in his life; their relationship meant more to him then he could really ever tell her. So no, he couldn't be happy with Joss, not like that. Because if he messed up, like he had with Rebecca, then it would ruin him.

"Aidan?"

He looked up to find Joss standing in the entrance to the kitchen looking at him questioningly. "You okay?"

"Yeah," he smiled. "Great."

"Good, cause I think it might be time to call this meeting to an end. That girl who was going on about the tagger is getting a bit fanatic."

He nodded and moved to follow her back into the living room, chuckling slightly as he heard her mutter,

"I'm going to have so much cleaning to do tonight."


	4. The time when Aidan made things clear

**Hope you enjoy. :) Mentions and use of some dialouge form S1 Ep 4 and 5**

Then there was that time where Aidan made things clear. Not that Joss was ever to find this out; not even Sally ratted him out, but that could have been because she was too preoccupied with her own afterlife drama. At first when Joss had come home the day after the full moon wearing douche cloths, which were easily too large for her and clearly belonged to a man, or at least some fashion challenged woman who was stuck in the 90's, and informed him she had met another werewolf, A man called Ray, Aidan had mixed feelings. It was good that she was meeting "people" with her affliction and he thought maybe this person could help her. At the same time, you could never be too careful; there were some real psychos out there. He would know, having been one of those psychos, although a balanced one, for many years prior to his change of attitude and lifestyle. He also found that he was surprisingly disturbed at the idea that this person had seen her naked…

"He's been watching me."

"No," he said, unsurprised. If the man had another set of cloths, of course he had been watching her. Again the idea that someone else, even if they were another werewolf, had seen his friend so vulnerable made him feel…he stamped down his irritation and turned towards the microwave to get his "breakfast"

She stared at him for a moment and then sighed and sunk down into one of the chairs at the table. Her hair was a mess, sticking up in all directions and there was a smug of dirt on her cheek. It was almost endearing. "Just when I begin to think there's hope, like real hope that I can be like everybody else, I wake up and I'm in,"

"I'm in hell!" Sally moaned coming into the kitchen and interrupting Joss, although it was clear she was about to say the same thing. "I died, and now I'm actually in Hell!"

Joss rolled her eyes, "Aidan and I were just talking about how _I'm_ in hell, but whatever. Lets talk about you. " Her sarcasm seemed lost on the ghost.

"I just spent my night watching Danny and Bridgette simper and swoon over each other. If I had bodily fluids, I'd spew them right now," Sally declared with vehemence.

"Who is Bridgette?" Aidan asked, glad that he had a distraction from his anger? No, that definitely wasn't it. Confusion that he was upset about some guy seeing Joss naked in the woods? Maybe.

"My best friend, who I've known since third grade, who I now realize is a brutal whore!" Sally informed them both, prompting them to ask why she just didn't leave when Bridgette and Danny started making out. This of course caused Sally to launch into another rant, this time about how she has to go wherever her mind goes… She sat on the counter finally, and then sighed and looked at Joss.

"Why are you dressed like a douche?"

Joss almost spit her juice out, and Aidan, still trying to figure out if this meeting another werewolf thing was a good thing for his best friend, said absently,

"Joss met another werewolf,"

"Awe,"

"Who's stalking her," he finished, studying his nails and not looking at the young woman sat at the table. He could feel her gaze burning into the side of his head.

"Eww," Sally gave Joss a disgusted look, although the disgust was most certainly not directed at her.

Joss was still staring at him. "I'm going to shower," she finally said, standing. He could hear the tightly coiled emotion in her voice, as well as a bit of disgruntlement directed at him for telling Sally about her new "friend". No doubt she was on the verge of having a freak-out. Once she had left, Sally turned to him,

"What do I do?"

"I'll tell you what you do. You uh, you be strong and you focus on other things." Was he giving her advice or himself, he slightly wondered. He really needed to figure out what was going on in his head.

Sally hopped down from the counter and gave him a look of derision. "Maybe I'll have your will power after I've been around for a century or two." Her tone implied so many things other than the current situation. And then she too left the kitchen, probably off to moan to Joss about her girl issues some more. Although Joss wasn't really that type of woman, much to Sally's chagrin.

He took a sip of his mug of blood and grimaced, quickly shoving it back into the microwave. There was nothing that ruined the start of his day more than a cold mug of blood …except the idea that some werewolf stalker had seen Joss naked…he definitely needed to sort out his thoughts.

Later in the day when Ray had come to the hospital and asked about Joss, Aidan had already decided that he had to do something to distance himself a bit from her, if only for a while. Not too much of course, they did live together and she was his best friend, but something was definitely changing in their relationship, at least for him. So he suggested that she should talk with Ray and let him help her. He even pulled out the half amused- half pleading smile he knew usually got her to do what he wanted. She sighed and walked over to Ray looking mildly pissed off but resigned.

"One cup of coffee," she said holding up a finger. "Tomorrow." She walked away without sparing Aidan another glance; he could tell from the way she moved she was really exasperated.

"Sweet," Ray called after her. "That's awesome honey!"

Joss turned back and gave him a derisive look. "I'm not your honey," She said coolly and then kept walking, her annoyance level only increased.

Aidan watched her go feeling slightly bad for increasing her anxiety level even more but this would be good for her, he was sure. Good for them both maybe.

Of course that didn't mean that he wanted the man on his couch; their couch.

"You were right," she told him as she leaned against the counter and watched him squeeze blood into his mug. "Ray's a pretty decent guy. Uh...he doesn't have a place to stay. I was thinking maybe he could crash here for a while."

He glanced up to see her with her hands on her jean clad hips, looking at him expectantly. "Really? Cause we hardly know him," He said dryly, almost dismissively.

She raised both brows and turned towards the oven. "Really? You're the one who told me to give him a chance," she paused and turned to look at him, as she leaned against the counter. "So, what? You worried about having more than one werewolf in the house?" she asked cautiously.

He didn't need this today. Not after what was already going on with Rebecca, was his initial thought, closely followed by how could she even think that he would think that? "Of course not," he told her gently. They looked at each other for a moment, and he was hit with that same feeling that had been bothering him earlier. Then she smiled slightly and said, "Good."

And that was that, especially since Sally had no objection to Ray being there. He put up with him for almost a month, distracted by his situation with Rebecca, but when he came home needing blood and couldn't get any because Ray had dumped it all out to make room for his rump roasts…well…

"It's been great the help you've given Joss, but you will be moving on after this moon."

Ray smirked, "Bet you'd like that wouldn't ya?" he tone was suggestive.

"It might be for the best, your welcome is wearing a bit thin here," Aidan was way too hungry to be dealing with this now. Why had he ever encouraged Joss to bring this bastard into their lives? Ray suggested that Joss wouldn't agree with him then, but Aidan knew better.

"Joss will do what's right." He knew that, like he knew that the sun rose in the east. It was a simple, sure fact of life.

"Who's to say what's right huh?" Ray challenged, "Some guy who's showing her how to survive, how to thrive? Or some...undead thing that lets her tag along like a pet. It's only a matter of time before she realizes and sees you for the leech you are. "

"Oh," Aidan pushed away from the table and squared up to Ray, "you picked the wrong time to screw with me Ray." He could tell that Ray was sizing him up, and that he was pleased that his comments had affected him.

"What are you going to do?" Ray asked "Rip me to shreds in this kitchen and prove to Joss what a murderous scum we both know you to be?"

Aidan smirked slightly," You are not worth my time Ray. You are not worth Joss' time. You will leave our house after the next full moon, or I will rip you apart. Believe me, between the two of us, Joss isn't going to pick you. Nor will she miss you when you're gone."

He stepped around the werewolf, intent on figuring out how he was going to cope without food for the night. He wasn't going back to Rebecca that night that was for sure.

"She's never gonna want you," Ray called after him, causing him to come to a halt. "Yeah, I've seen the way that your eyes follow her, the way you look at her. But kind goes for kind and you, well you're just not her kind. Although…I don't blame you, she does have real nice set of-"

Aidan was back in front of him in an instant, his grip on the monster gnawing in his chest practically non-existent, "You do not talk about her like that," he said in a dangerously low voice. "Joss is not some woman you picked up at the bar and brought back for a good time. If you lay even a finger on her, if one hair on her head is even out of place, what I will do to you will have you begging for death."

Ray eyed him evenly and once more Aidan turned and walked away, heading for the stairs. He looked back at Ray, throwing back one more barb, "Oh and if I wanted Joss, I could have had her months ago. Like I said Ray, its never going to be you."

When Sally told Aidan that she had figured out Danny had killed her, the rage he felt was the perfect excuse to take out some pent up emotion, about Bishop and his crazy plans, about his own frustration with his life at the moment and about how uneasy and upset Joss had seemed that morning, and the look in her eyes when Ray had said they were changing together that night; something had happened to make her afraid and leery of the other werewolf, probably something to do with what had been implied at Sapp and Sons. Of course Sally convinced him to not go after Danny, pleaded with him. Later, the next night, after he had taken out Bishop's priest, he felt slightly better. Enough to indulge Joss in her "ritual of normalcy".

"So, what happened with Ray?" Sally asked as Joss ate chicken like it was going out of style and Aidan watched her, amused.

Joss' exuberance, the vivacity that seemed to have possessed her since she made them sit down at the table, faded and before she spoke, told them that Ray was gone, Aidan just knew that something was wrong. Really wrong.

"And the other night, those degenerates you rolled?" they locked gazes and he knew that she understood what he was really saying.

"Ray rolled," she said almost inaudibly and then softly, but earnestly, "that's gone too."

Sally was looking between the two of them obviously confused, but Aidan ignored her, instead keeping a level gaze on his other roommate. He could tell that something was still wrong. Joss picked up her wine glass, but instead of drinking said in a slightly bland tone as if she was telling them it was going to rain, "Oh, fun tidbit. Turns out that Ray is uh the one that did this to me. Made me what I am."

"You're kidding?" was all Aidan could think to say, his thoughts racing. At least Sally asked if Joss was okay, which is what he should have done, he thought.

"Yeah, I'm awesome," She quipped. "Who wouldn't want to meet their weredad?" The three of them laughed slightly and then she asked for the Salad.

Aidan continued to watch her though and he knew, no matter what she said, that she most definitely was not okay. When he had threatened Ray those few days ago he couldn't have known that the man had already hurt Joss irrevocably. As he watched Joss smile at something Sally said, he knew without a doubt that if he ever saw Ray again, if that dog ever came sniffing around, he would put him down. Painfully and without remorse. Ray might have been right in his taunts about his feelings for Joss, in fact he was beginning to suspect that he was very right, bastard that he was. At the moment, he couldn't find it within himself to care. Joss deserved to be looked out for and that was exactly what he was going to do.


	5. The time Aidan met the parents

**Borrowed from S1 ( I see your true colours and that's why I hate you)**

Then there was the time where Aidan met her parents and things just got awkward.

"I swear to God, if that's my high school math teacher here for an intervention, I'm going to cut my face off," Joss gestured to her face, not missing her sister roll her eyes or her dad's condescending and half amused look. She strode quickly to the door, seething. How could Emily do this to her? It was bad enough that she had forced her to come home, but to rat out her secret to her parents and show them her journal? That violated so many sisterly codes. It had to.

Joss opened the door, only to come face to face with Aidan. She stared for a moment and he started to smile.

"Aidan…what the hell?"

She was surprised to see him of course, although part of her was slightly glad if only because he could help her explain things better…of course she was still pissed at him for leaving Emily alone at the bar, so he could get it on with Rebecca no doubt.

"Joss. Let me in."

She shook her head. "No. No! What are you doing here? Seriously…"

He gave her the smile, the one he knew she couldn't say no to most of the time, but Joss wasn't budging. Of course, her mother had to come along and next thing she knew Aidan was walking past her, shooting her a slightly gloating look. With a huff Joss closed the door. "I'm sorry I didn't keep kosher," she whispered staring up at the ceiling. "That's why this is happening right? I'm being punished for eating pork."

"Joss?" Her mother was leaning out of the dining room. "Come on honey, its rude to leave your friend alone with your family."

Joss shot her an incredulous look, which she either didn't see or chose to ignore. "Okay…" shaking her head she returned to the dining room and sat down beside Aidan.

She shot Emily another hurt look, because really this was all her fault, but her sister just gulped her wine and ignored her. Watching her sister, she wondered how she was going to be able to fool her into believing she was fine. She doubted anything she said or did would really work, Emily had always seen right through her, but she had to try.

"Their place is actually decent," Emily was saying, pulling Joss out of her mind fog. "Not your typical bachelor roofy den."

"And are two happy…together as…roommates?" Although the tone it was asked in was inquiring, it was a loaded question if she had ever heard one. Joss wanted to bang her head against the table. Was this really happening? Was her mother really implying that she and Aidan had something going on?

"Mom," she started, but Aidan just smiled congenially and cut her off.

"You know, we are. And if I may be so bold," he moved closer to the table a bit, but his hand that wasn't on the table touched hers, which was resting on her knee, as if in reassurance.

"Of course you would," she muttered to herself, but as always in situations like this, Aidan ignored her.

"Your daughter, had a guy over the other night. Just a really nice guy. You get a few glasses of wine into her and she really knows how to turn on the charm."

Of course he would bring up Jesse, who was just a friend. And she'd only had one glass of wine; well maybe two or three, Jesse did come on a bit strong, but he seemed to genuinely like her and he had been a big help when Emily had staggered in looking like she had been run over. She knew though that Aidan didn't like him for whatever reason; he was only bringing him up to spite her.

"And we're ok, drinking on the medication?" her dad asked, giving her a look that suggested he still didn't believe her that she wasn't crazy. Why did the man always have to try and "shrink" her? No wonder she was so screwed up.

"I don't…do…that," she trailed off, not sure what to say.

Aidan looked at her questioningly, but it was her mom that broke the tension.

"I think its good to have other forms of recreation."

Emily gulped most of her wine then and Joss was sure her mouth was hanging open. "Mom!"

Her mother just smiled and shrugged a bit, "What, I think its good that your happy honey, however that may be."

"Oh my…" Joss muttered and quickly picked up her own glass. The rate things were going, her little sister was not the only one who was going to get drunk tonight.

"Joss?" Aidan was still looking at her, now expectantly.

She sighed in exasperation, "My family thinks that I think I'm a werewolf. They think that my graphic novel, is a journal…my personal journal," she stressed, locking eyes with him. They exchanged a look and then Aidan laughed; she knew it was his fake laugh, but still it was convincing.

"Wait, you think that Joss thinks that she's a werewolf?" he shook his head in mock disbelief, still chuckling.

"I know right?" she asked, laughing slightly. She was glad that Aidan had shown up; she couldn't do this without him. She turned back to her family.

"Now do you believe me? Everything is fine, I'm not crazy. So can we just put this behind us? I.."

Beside her Aidan started coughing and quickly pulled his napkin up to cover his face.

"Are you okay?" she asked, as her family stared. He lowered the napkin slightly so she could see and she had to stifle a gasp when she was met with his full on vampire face. Suddenly he jumped up throwing his napkin down and rushed towards the stairs.

She turned and met the amazed and bewildered gazes of her parents and sister. "Uh, he's just gone through a really bad break up. I should, uh I should go make sure he's okay. I'm just going to see if he's okay." And she quickly pushed her chair away and ran up the stairs after her best friend, finding him in the bathroom examining his teeth.

After a ridiculous exchange where she mistakenly thought he was asking about some band and he demanded herbs, she returned to the bathroom with a tray of chamomile teas only to find him stripped down and wearing a very low slung towel.

"And you're naked. And taking a bath, during dinner." She stared at him, although part of her brain was telling her she should probably look away. Why had she never paid attention before to how nice he looked without a shirt?

"Just go Joss," he hissed impatiently and she quickly left the tray and exited the bathroom, leaning against the door and closing her eyes. "I was not just ogling Aidan," she muttered to herself. Voices echoed from downstairs, pulling her out of her muttering and then all hell broke loose.

By the end of the night Aidan was recovering from more than just a garlic induced allergy fit and Joss' family thought she was certifiable.

"What's happening to you baby?" he mother asked, after Joss had made sure Aidan was back upstairs after his fight with Marcus, her voice thick with emotion.

She was so tired of the lies and just wanted it all to stop. She had known coming home was a mistake, but for one perfect moment she had hoped that her family would welcome her back. She could see now that it was a pipe dream best left behind.

"I am a werewolf," she said holding back her tears. "Its who I am. What possible place is there here for me?"

Her parents looked shocked at her admission, her mother was crying and her father was already planning possible treatments for mental affliction she could tell. Emily moved from where she had been standing behind her and wrapped her arms around her big sister.

'Its going to be ok Joss. We are here for you, I promise."

Her mother stepped forward and cradled her face between her hands. "It's going to be okay baby. I'm so sorry you have had to go through this alone, but we are going to get you the help you need."

Joss just shook her head; she could feel the tears beginning to leak. "I'm going to check on Aidan and then go to bed." She gently extracted herself from her mother and sister and with one last glance towards her father, slowly headed upstairs. It was only when she was safely in the bathroom, and ignoring the fact that Aidan was once again immersing himself in tea water, that she sunk down onto the floor ,leaned against the door and drawing her knees up so her head rested against them, cried.

The room was silent, except for a hitch in her breath every now and then as she steadily soaked the knee of her jeans. Aidan said nothing and for that Joss would be eternally grateful; it was nice to have at least one person in her life that knew her well enough to know what she would need. Finally after some time she sighed and sat back, wiping her eyes on the sleeve of her blue plaid shirt. She looked over to see Aidan now sitting up in the tub, looking distinctly more like himself. Or at least without the black eyes and fangs.

"I see the chamomile worked. You're looking distinctly less fangy."

He didn't smile, nor did he smirk like he usually would.

"Are you okay?" she asked pushing her hair back and trying not to stare at his naked chest. She wondered idly who Celine was; she must have been special to warrant a tattoo.

"Are _you _okay?" he asked instead of answering.

She sighed and shook her head, looking back down at her knees. "No. No Aidan, I am not okay. I told them, and they want to help me; but they can't. No one can, not in the way they want. Because there is no quick fix for this, no treatment or amount of psycho babble is going to change the fact that every month I change into a thing and that for the other 29 days I am constantly on edge. It won't bring us closer together and it won't make me have the life I used to have, where everything was planned out and I was going to be a doctor and marry my best friend."

He looked at her evenly, a bit of sadness evident in his gaze and then he sighed, "Sometimes, the best thing is to move forward Joss. We can want what we had, pine for it with all our might, but in the end we can't go back. Not us. People like your family, they can do that, and they can fix their problems and get back to a semblance of what was normal. But we," he paused and she looked at him, almost pleadingly.

"We create our own normal, because the only way to move on is to pick up the pieces and create something else."

Their gazes stayed locked and she felt like she was hyperventilating. More tears came to her eyes, but she blinked them back. "I feel like I'm drowning, like I'm suffocating and I just need someone to grab my hand pull me back up and give me some air."

He nodded, smiling slightly for the first time since dinner. "It's the human condition. Everyone feels like that; even Vampires once and while. You're going to be fine Joss, just not in the way that your family might want."

They lapsed into silence again and she noticed that she had mud on her shoes from being outside when Aidan was fighting Marcus. Her mother was going to freak out when she saw the mud that had been tracked across her hardwood. The thought was so normal that she snorted and then she was laughing.

"What?" Aidan asked, chuckling slightly at her sudden mirth.

She shook her head, still laughing. "I was just thinking that my mother was going to freak out when she saw all the mud tracked through her house. It would be so like her to worry about that when she has just found out that her daughter is crazy."

"Your not crazy," he smirked, "Neurotic, yes. Obsessive, most definitely. Certifiable?"

He shook his head still smirking.

She rolled her eyes, "Haha. Your humor never ceases to amuse me. Are you planning on getting out of there anytime soon? You're probably turning into a prune."

He raised a brow, "I would have been out of here twenty minutes ago, but someone decided to have a crying jag."

She blushed slightly, "Oh, well I'll just…I'll just turn around then. Or leave." She started to stand.

"Just turn around Joss."

She did as requested and a minute later he was tapping her on the shoulder. She turned back, only to be met with the site of his chest and that intriguing tattoo.

"My shirt is soaked," he explained and she nodded.

"Yeah. Uh, I'll find you something. Come on," she led the way out of the bathroom and up to her attic bedroom.

Aidan looked around while she fished through a box that was sat in the corner. She knew what he was seeing; the room was almost preserved, as if it was cleaned often. When she had first walked in that morning she had been shocked and then saddened. It was like everyone had expected she would just pop back up one day, the same and ready to restart the life she left behind.

'Here. It's the only shirt that I have that will fit you and doesn't look like it belongs on a woman." She handed him a man's black t-shirt, then sat on the bed as he pulled it on.

"My fiancé-ex fiancé must have brought my stuff here after I left. His shirt must have gotten tossed in there."

He sat beside her, "You don't really talk about him."

She nodded, "Not much to say. His name is Julian, he was studying to be a doctor too and he was crazy enough to want to marry me. I hope he's happy; I can't ask Emily because then she'll just try and get us back together or something. He deserves better than me."

In a rare show of affection Aidan reached out and wrapped his arm around her, pulling her close to his side. She rested her head against his shoulder and closed her eyes; she was exhausted. "I'm sure he thought there was no one better than you Joss. He wouldn't have wanted to marry you otherwise."

Again they lapsed into silence, although it could be said that it was comfortable and peaceful, as it often is between two people who don't need to always talk to communicate.

Joss was falling asleep when she finally found her voice again. "Aidan?"

"Hmm?"

"Can we go home?" she looked up at him and he just nodded.

Extracting herself from his arms she went over to the desk and began to write a note. He simply watched her as she wrote slowly and carefully weighing every word she put down. Finally she sighed and folded the paper and the moved to get her bag, which he took from her, causing her to crack a bit of a smile.

They padded down the stairs and she stopped by her sister's room touching the door for a moment, as if grounding herself and then she pushed the folded paper beneath the door.

"Bye Em," she murmured, "Be good. Look after mom."

Once they were outside, having mercifully avoided meeting her parents on their way out of the house, Joss began to feel a bit better, the panic attack that had been building slowly subsiding. It was only once they were in the car and driving away from her parent's house, the house where she had grown up, that she truly began to relax and when Aidan reached over and squeezed her leg slightly in reassurance, she knew that she was going to be okay. Or as okay as someone like her could be.


	6. The time he screwed up

**A/N: I do not own anything associated with Being Human(Thought I better add one more disclaimer just to be safe). Mentions and some dialouge from S1, Dog eat dog. Two more chapters after this, but I have a question: I have already started a sequel to this, so should I just make it one big story or should I publish separately? Please let me know your thoughts as I am really stuck on what to do.**

Then there was the time that she thought they might never be able to get back to what they had.

When she woke up, the first thing that her senses told her was that she was cold. The second was that there was a metallic taste in the back of her throat. This wasn't unusual, she was used to waking up cold and dirty after the full moon; the taste of blood from the wolf's rampage through the forest still in her mouth. The third thing she realized, as she stretched slightly, was that there was a pain in her side; tender as if she had a wound that was half way through healing. And that was when her eyes flew open and she sat up pulling her knees in to shield herself, or at least provide a sense of modesty, because she wasn't in the forest; she was in a pen in the basement of a funeral home run by sadistic vampires and the night before she had killed someone. Joss had a vague recollection of fighting another werewolf, the old man she had met the day before she knew. And judging by the fact that she was still breathing, she had won, which left no doubt to the fate of her new acquaintance. Her breath started to come in gasps then, as she resisted the urge to gag and throw up.

"Here," a hand appeared in her line of sight, offering a bottle of water. She started at it almost uncomprehendingly and then slowly took it, rinsing out her mouth and spitting the water on the floor before taking another drink.

"I brought your clothes," they were thrown down in front of her and again she simply stared at them even though she was shivering.

"Joss," it came out as a sigh, pleading. A hand came down and touched her shoulder and she recoiled, skittering backwards towards the chair she had been strapped down to the night before.

"Don't," she said, voice hoarse and slightly dead sounding. "Don't touch me. Please." She closed her eyes, mentally telling herself to calm down. When she opened them and raised her head slightly, Aidan was looking at her almost helplessly.

"Can you turn around please?"

He did as she asked and she quickly grabbed her clothes pulling her jeans and t-shirt on, since her bra and underwear had been destroyed the night before when she changed. Sliding her feet into her shoes, she said "You can turn back around."

When he did she didn't meet his gaze, instead staring down at the floor. In the periphery of her vision she could see the body, or what was left of it, of the other werewolf.

"Your free to go," Aidan finally said, gently as if he was afraid that he would scare her. "I made a deal with Bishop. You can go home."

She nodded and still keeping her gaze off of him moved past him and to the opening of the cage. She could hear him behind her, but still she did little to acknowledge him. Once she had retrieved the notebook the man had kept with his research in it, she followed Aidan mutely as he led her out of the funeral home. They didn't run into any other vampires and for that she could only be grateful. It was only when they were in the car that she finally looked at him. Aidan was tensed, hands gripping the steering wheel tightly; his lips set in a way she knew by now meant he was thinking, worried thoughts. Still she didn't say anything, content to let him stew; she didn't know what she was feeling yet but sympathy for Aidan was definitely not it.

Once they were home she quickly jumped out of the car and ran into the house leaving him to trail behind, if he so chose to. At that moment she wouldn't have been surprised if he turned right back around and went back to his "family".

"Joss!" Sally had obviously been waiting for them to get there, as she had been sitting in the window watching the street. "Oh my god, are you okay? If I could, I would so hug you right now. Aidan wouldn't tell me anything, just told me to go home and wait." She glared behind Joss, where Aidan was now standing, and then turned to her again a look of concern on her pretty face.

"I'm going to be sick," is all Joss managed to reply, as she ran past her into the kitchen, leaning over the garbage-can and promptly throwing up what little was in her stomach. She dry heaved for a minute, ignoring the smell of bile that was now permeating her kitchen; she would clean it up later. Once she had gotten herself together again she grabbed the whole garbage-can and carried it out to the front step. Both Aidan and Sally were watching her, but instead of acknowledging them she trudged up the stairs and to the bathroom to have the longest shower of her life.

Later, when Aidan came into her room and sat down, she finally talked to him. He told her that what she did will always stay with her; what he didn't say is that there is nothing he can do to make it better. When she asks him what he did so that she didn't have to stay a prisoner, like the other werewolf, Douglas, he says he made a deal, a code of honor between he and Bishop. By this point Sally too has drifted upstairs and the tension between the three of them is palpable.

"I was scared, selfish even. It was really you that saved Joss," he told Sally, his gaze never leaving Joss who was sat on the floor by her bed, knees drawn up to her chest.

"And doomed you," Sally said sadly, shaking her head and coming into the room to stand by the desk. "Aidan, no." But Joss can tell that there isn't any pleading that is going to fix this. He made a deal, he bargained her life and freedom in exchange for having to help Bishop. For having to go back to _that. _Still…

"Sally's right," she said almost in quiet anger. She still had not fully looked at him. "What I saw in there…how could you do that? How could you go back to that?" And now, finally, she did look at him, her gaze accusing. "When all this, this house? This was all your idea in the first place." She could feel the emotion welling up in her chest and finally she knew what she was feeling and had been feeling for a while now. "God Aidan. What are we supposed to believe in if we can't believe in you?" She felt betrayed, that was it. Since the moment she had woken up on that cold floor, perhaps the day before when she had been forced to strip and been handled like livestock by the Amish vampire if she was honest, she had felt completely and utterly betrayed. She trusted Aidan like she had trusted no one else. He and Sally were her family; and she had been sure that no matter what she could always believe in him. She would even admit it to herself that she loved him; and that was what hurt the most.

Aidan looked like he was going to cry, if it was possible. He had not taken his eyes off of her once and now returning his gaze, she too could feel the tears welling up.

"You can," he told her, gently and with conviction, as if he was trying to reassure her. Reassure both her and Sally really, because Sally was as much a part of this drama as she and Aidan. "I just hope that you both can forgive me."

"There is nothing to forgive," Sally told him, also on the verge of tears. Joss really hoped that she wouldn't start crying, she didn't want to have the sinks over flowing or the windows breaking or any other type of ghost induced disasters. Sally seemed to have herself under control though.

Joss continued to look into Aidan's eyes; they reflected pain back at her and were beseeching, wanting something, hoping that she would give it to him. Could she though, she wondered. It might take a while, but could she really forgive him? What had he done really, that was so unforgivable? She took a shuddering breath then, knowing what she had to say.

"I forgive you Aidan. Just please, try and remember that no matter what you owe them, whatever you think you owe Bishop, that this is your home and we are your family. Not them. Not anymore." They continued to hold each others gaze, as so often seemed to happen, saying so much more with their eyes then they ever dared to speak with their lips.

Later that night, after Aidan had left to meet up with Bishop, Sally came into her room again and sat on the bed, turning to face Joss who was laying on her side but very much awake.

"Are you sure your okay?" she asked worriedly. "Last night was brutal enough to watch, I can't imagine what your feeling."

Joss shook her head slightly. "I've been trying to figure that out all day. I mean I killed a man last night Sally, literally tore him apart. I should feel vile; I keep telling myself, it was him or me, but I know I should be feeling like what I did was unforgivable. But I realized when Aidan was in here earlier, that as much as I hate myself right now, that is how betrayed I feel. I know I shouldn't be feeling that way, but I feel so betrayed by him. I feel like something is-"

"Like something in you is broken and you would give anything to fix it."

She looked up at Sally, who shrugged. "I'm an expert on betrayal remember? Murdered by the man who I planned on spending the rest of my life with? My best friend is shacking up with him? Kind of got the whole betrayal thing down."

Joss looked at her deadpan and Sally sighed, smiling slightly. "You've got to ask yourself honey why you feel this way. Its not just what Aidan did, making a deal with Bishop?"

Joss nodded, "No," she said quietly. "Its not. I'm just being silly, its not like he offered up my first-born. I think it's just that he didn't do anything, until you convinced him to. That he chose them over me; that my faith in him always having my back has been shattered."

Sally passed a hand over her head as if to caress her hair. Even with the lack of actual physical touch, the action soothed Joss non-the less.

"You love him," Sally stated astutely. If it had of been a question Joss would have denied it; at another time she would have awkwardly shrugged it off. But she was feeling strangely open after the night before.

"I do," her voice was soft, barely audible. "I do love him and that is what hurts the most. I am in love with Aidan." It almost felt liberating to speak the words aloud.

They lapsed into silence, comfortable with just each others company. After a time Joss rolled over onto her back and sat up, her hair falling around her face in a disheveled mess. "You can't tell him Sally. Whatever happens, he cannot know. Nothing can ever come of it."

"Joss…"

"No. Promise me, you won't say anything. I just want to try and get back to how things were; I need him as a friend more than anything."

Sally nodded, although reluctantly. "I promise Joss."


	7. There have been so many times

There have been so many times, so many moments when people have looked at them and speculated. Where they would be sitting outside having lunch, or in Aidan's case pretending to have lunch, and someone would walk by and give them a look. A look that he knew all too well, having seen it many times over his many decades of existence. It was a look that said, now aren't they just a nice looking couple? Don't they look good together?

There are the times when he has stopped by the nurses station for a moment and someone has said something to him in passing, like "Your girlfriend is being awkward again, she just bowed to me." Or "doesn't it bother you that, that Intern is always talking Joss up?" That intern of course being Jesse, who still remained firmly in the just friends category. There are days when Aidan is gleefully pleased by this fact, and then there are days when he just wants Joss to find something stable and normal. Not that he wants to distance himself from her, far from it. And there in lies the problem. It is one thing for a teenage girl in the checkout at the store to comment on their relationship, they can laugh it off and go on like nothing is different, and another to put it into practice. Sometimes he feels like there is no one that has known him better since he became a monster, seen him for a person and not as some warrior killing machine like Bishop did. Like a child to be consoled and bemusedly dealt with. Sitting here now, with Sally and Joss, the loss of Bishop still fresh in his mind, the effect of what he had to do the night before both to Bishop and Celine still lingering ,he can't help but feel at home.

He had felt it before, in the basement of the hospital while Joss held his hand tightly, her own fear at that moment so palpable that he could practically taste it. After Bishop had busted through their front window and staked him Joss and Sally had acted surprisingly fast, somehow getting him into their junker of a car and to the hospital basement, in the room where Joss would sometimes change into the wolf. Joss had then somehow managed to get him blood and had then sat there with him all night holding his hand. He had wanted to tell her so many things then, sure that this was the end for him finally; there had been a moment when he had opened his eyes and seen her sitting beside him, his hand clasped between both of hers and even in his delirium he had been struck by a feeling of rightness.

They had sent Sally back to the house where her door to move on waited, but apparently she had missed it. Fast forward 48 hours or so and here they were, sitting on their living room floor, admiring the fire damage to the house from Danny's attempt to burn the place down a few days ago.

"No more waiting," Sally said with conviction. "I'm going to do something with my time. You know, I mean maybe I got closure with Danny, but I never got it with my family, my friends."

Joss nodded, "So you're just going to haunt them basically."

"Basically," Sally smiled at her slightly. "And," she said more brightly, shaking the somber tone their conversation had taken, "We're all going to be supernatural Krav Maga crimefighters,"

Aidan had to laugh at that one, he had said it off the top of his head, but Sally was right, crime fighting could be a lucrative business for him. The doorbell rang then and he went to answer it, throwing back some comment about how it might be fun to watch Joss eat pizza. Of course it wasn't the pizza boy, because really when had life ever been that simple. He stared at the Dutch Vampire who stood on the other side of the threshold of the door and then stepped outside closing the door firmly behind him.

"Hegeman. You're looking well," he said respectfully.

Hegeman nodded. "I have you to thank for that."

"You've come a long way to thank me, when there was no need." He wasn't sure why the Vampire elder was really there, but he could feel that it didn't bode well. He had just gained his freedom from Bishop; wariness would probably be the best course of action.

"But there is," Hegeman insisted. "You have saved us a lot of trouble by slaying Bishop."

"It had to be done," he looked away slightly, because part of him would always grieve the loss of his maker, even while he felt extremely free for the first time in over 200 years.

"And you are honorable," Hegeman continued, ignoring Aidan's discomfort. " So, Its time."

"I'm sorry?" He asked carefully.

"She wants to meet you," obviously seeing the confusion on Aidan's face, although there was no doubt which she was implied, he continued, "Aidan do not be foolish. You are the leader now. Of course, she wants to meet you."

Still Aidan found that he could only stare. Of course he was the leader no;he had killed Bishop, he should have realized what that meant. But to meet with her…

"This is a great honor Hegeman, but I'm not sure…"

"It is all settled," Hegeman cut him off and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Mother will come to Boston. Until then, lead the family. I must return now," he nodded to Aidan who could only nod back and watch the older Vampire leave, so many questions racing through his brain. Just as he was about to turn and head back in a car pulled up and a teenage boy hopped out carrying a pizza box. Aidan paid him absently, probably tipping more than necessary if the smile the kid flashed him was any indication, and then headed back inside.

"Finally," Joss said as he slowly came into the living room. "Did you have to wait while they instructed you on how to eat it?" She turned and looked at him, smiling and then slowly her smile was replaced with a look of worry.

"Aidan, what's wrong?" Sally asked, also noticing that he seemed out of sorts.

He sat back down on the floor and handed Joss the Pizza, which she sat aside in order to give him her full attention.

"Aidan?"

He sighed, "We had a visitor. Hegeman, was just here."

"Hegeman?" Joss asked, her brow furrowing, as Sally asked at the same time,

"Hegeman? As in the creepy Amish vampire who felt Joss up?"

Aidan ignored the reference to his less then stellar behaviour on the day that Joss had been forced into the wolf fight, and said, "He said that I'm to lead Boston now. And that Mother wants to meet with me."

"What?"

He looked over at Joss, her eyes were wide, a worried cast over taking them. Sally too looked similarly worried and bit confused.

"Who's Mother?"

"Never mind that," Joss insisted. "Aidan, he can't be serious. Don't you have to want to lead Boston? Isn't there some sort of nomination process or something?"

He nodded, "This is it. I killed Bishop, so I'm in charge now. Or at least until Mother determines the proper order."

"So what, its like one of those macho, I'm stronger so I get to be in charge things? This is ridiculous," Joss muttered. He could see that she was getting upset, worry for him apparent in her tone and expression as she shook her head and looked down at her legs.

"Who the hell is Mother?" Sally demanded, somewhat crossly, breaking him out of his contemplation and bringing his gaze back to her.

"Mother is," again he sighed, this time looking for the right words to describe the complexity that was Mother. "She's like our ruler. She's the oldest of us, Royalty. Her word is law. If she takes an interest in you, you don't say no."

"And she's taken an interest in you," Sally stated. He only looked at her, not saying anything. What could he say, that he hadn't already? He was still reeling from Hegeman's announcement.

"I need a drink," Joss murmured, quickly getting to her feet and practically running to kitchen. He watched her go, feeling at a loss. Things were happening way too quickly and if he were human, he was sure he would be cracking right about now.

Some time later, while Sally was off somewhere, probably making good on her promise to start haunting her friends and family, Aidan found himself knocking on Joss' door. He waited a moment and then pushed it open and leaned against the door frame.

"Hey," she greeted, looking up from the book she had been reading as she lay on the bed. It looked like the journal that she had rescued from Sapp and Sons basement.

"Hey," he watched as she sat up, closed the book and sat it aside, an unreadable look on his face. She bit her lip lightly, the action causing him to feel certain things that he knew he had no business feeling, and looked at him earnestly.

"Are you okay? I mean, really okay?" She sighed and ran hand through her hair, "of course you're not, why am I even asking."

His lips curved upward in a small smile; it always amused him when she got awkward like this. It probably always would. "I will be," he said gently, entering the room and sitting on the bed just bellow her feet.

"I don't just mean about what happened with Bishop and this whole crazy thing about leading Boston. You lost someone yesterday."

He looked down, worrying his own bottom lip slightly. He had lost someone the day before, someone that he held dear, that he loved at one point and still held fond feelings for. But he had taken her life, as sure as he had taken Bishops.

"What Celine did… that went beyond anything; I don't…" he shook his head and was only slightly startled when she reached out and took his hand, caressing it lightly.

"Celine loved you, I could tell from the moment I met her. Even after all these years, she still cared about you and what she did, what she asked you to do, was because of that love. She wanted you to have a chance Aidan," she paused and he raised his eyes to meet hers, which were reassuring and piercing all at the same time.

"When you love someone," she continued never breaking eye contact, "You do whatever you have to, to make sure they are safe."

"Like offer to take their enemies on in the basement of a hospital?" he asked lightly, a small smile coming to his lips.

Joss didn't return it, "Yes."

They continued to simply look at each other, thoughts reeling and he found himself feeling amused once again as a slight blush spread across her cheeks."I didn't mean..I mean I care about you, so of course I'm going to want to protect you, but I mean," and there was that awkwardness again. It was amazing how she could go from full on deadly serious to endearingly stammering in the same conversation. Still, while he would love to address what exactly it was she was denying, there were other things that needed to be said just then.

"Things are going to get a little harder now," he said slowly, voice low. "Bishop created all these followers, new vampires, and I'm going to have deal with them all. I might not be around as much, for a while." Her hand still rested on his and she began to draw it away. Before she could, he grabbed it and held it tightly in his own.

"You'll do what you have to. Life goes on right?'' her voice was a bit breathy and he could see something blossoming in her eyes. What was that expression? The eyes were the windows to the soul? In that moment he was sure that they were.

"Yeah," he said, leaning forward and using his grip on her hand to bring her closer. "It does."

"I might not be able to meet you after the full moon for a while or take you to the woods. Or lock you in the room." They were close now, only a hand space between them.

She shrugged slightly, "Sally could probably use a change of scenery. I could get her to lock me in, she did such a good job of it last night."

He nodded; eyes shifting down to her lips briefly and then back up to meet hers again. He slid his hand up to her wrist, loosening his grip a bit and he could feel the increase in her pulse. "Joss," he leaned closer still, all the words that his mind screamed at him to say trapped; his instincts warring between backing away and taking what he wanted.

"Ai- Aidan," she breathed in a stuttering breath and that was the end of him. Had he not been just thinking not ten minutes before that her awkwardness was endearing? He closed the final distance between them and captured her lips with his own, her hand now trapped against his chest, still in his hold.

At first it seemed that she was not going to kiss him back, as she sat frozen under his ministrations. Just as he was about to pull back though, she pressed her lips back against his, bringing her free hand up to cup his cheek. An indescribable feeling began to suffuse him then, an ache in his still heart, and if he had to he would have said it was like the feeling he got looking at her sitting by him that night when he thought he would die. It was the feeling that came over him every time he looked into her eyes of late; the feeling of being home.

The kiss began to become more heated, lips possessing and searing, hands, hers now free from his grip, caressing, finding smooth skin as the moved up the back of shirts and brushed through soft hair. Finally he pulled away, resting his forehead against hers, eyes closed. He could hear her gasping for breath, trying to calm her stuttering heart down. He moved away from her, placing a chaste kiss, merely a brush of the lips, against her forehead and stood.

"Goodnight Joss."

As he left the room, he glanced back to see her eyes still closed and her chest still heaving slightly. The sight, the vulnerability of it, would stay with him all his days.

"Goodnight Aidan," her voice barely reached his ears as he closed her door and moved down the hall to his own room. Once there he sank down onto his bed. What have I done, was the thought that kept circulating through his mind. He couldn't escape the feeling that he had potentially just ruined what he had with Joss. She was his best friend, his support and his family. Still, the feel of her hands on his skin, the taste of her lips and the exhilaration her racing pulse gave him, just the thought that he had done that to her, was something that he would not trade. And her stuttering words before were practically an admission.

Whatever may happen in the months to come, he would not regret kissing her. The expression may be that you can't miss what you don't have, but he thought that knowing, in this case, was better than not.


	8. The last time

**Ok, so here is the last part of part one. This chapter was originally the last chapter of this fic, and I was going to continue in a sequel, but I am going to make an effort to meld everything into one story. It should work. I think. I hope. Updates might become sporadic after this, although I do have the next chapter written. I will make the same promise here that I have made to the readers of my HP fic, and that is that I will never abandon a story. It may take a while but this will be completed. Enough rambling, I hope you all enjoy the chapter. :)**

The last time she decided to keep count, she didn't really mind so much. Not like she used to, when she would vehemently deny that there could be anything other then platonic interaction between she and Aidan. There would be many times after this, she was sure, that people would get the wrong impression, but was it really that bad?

"Are you ready to go Mrs. Cook?" she asked as the orderly, not Mike thankfully (the man could not take a hint), helped the elderly woman into a wheel chair.

"I'm going to take you down to get your x-ray done."

The older woman nodded, and Joss thanked the orderly before pushing the chair out of the room and down the hall. As they went, Mrs. Cook chatted to her and she found she was glad for the distraction. Her mind had of late been stuck on the night Hegeman had turned up on their doorstep, specifically the moment when Aidan had kissed her. Of course Joss had been kissed before, she had been planning on getting married and she'd had a few boyfriends in high school; it was the way that Aidan kissed her that had her floored. She had felt it as soon as their lips met, an all-consuming fire burning in her belly and threatening to explode forth. It had been all she could do to not just jump him right then and there and have her way with him, and from the way things were going it probably wouldn't have been too hard to convince him. It hadn't been lust. That she could explain and be satisfied with; if It had only been lust then she wouldn't be thinking about it so much. It was hard to describe, but when Aidan had kissed her and even after wards when he left, as erratic as her pulse had become and as hard as it was to calm her breathing down, she had felt right, safe even. It was startling, because Joss had not felt that since before she had been scratched and become a werewolf, and to feel it now, in the arms of her vampire room mate/best friend, well that definitely bore some thinking about.

She knew, of course that she loved Aidan, that she was in love with him; had done so for weeks. But knowing it and feeling it, actually fully realizing it, were two completely different things. And now she wasn't quite sure what to do and how they would move forward from this. Aidan seemed to want to ignore it, although in the past two weeks there had been moments when she would catch him looking at her with an unidentifiable look in his eyes. Sally of course wasn't aware that her two roommates had been making out, so she would be of no help unless Joss told her what happened. Which she most certainly was not going to do. Maybe. Probably. Who was she kidding; she will probably have spilled her guts to her ghost friend by the end of the week.

"Is your husband coming to see you today?" She asked Mrs. Cook as they headed for the elevator.

"Oh, yes. It's our granddaughters birthday, so he'll be coming by later after her party. I made him promise to tell me all about it."

Joss smiled, "That's nice. How many kids do you have?"

"Five, and let me tell you they were all a hand full and a half. But children always are I suppose. Do you have any?"

They had joined the small queue in front of the elevators now. "Kids?" Joss laughed lightly. "Oh no. I can't even keep a steady relationship going."

"Well, you'll find someone someday. Pretty girl like you, there's got to be someone out there."

Joss nodded and then was struck with a thought. Normally she would never consider discussing personal information about herself with a patient but she really needed some third party impute, "Mrs. Cook, can I ask you something of a personal nature?'

The older woman looked back at her, intrigued, "Shoot."

Joss resisted the urge to laugh and said, "If a man, who you consider a good friend, a close friend, kisses you one day and then pretends that it never happened, what would you do?"

Mrs. Cook snorted, "Toss him to the curb."

Now Joss did laugh and shake her head. The elevator dinged and people began to file on. Joss maneuvered the wheelchair on and found herself squished against the sidewall of the elevator. Just as the doors were about to close a hand shot through blocking their progress. Next thing she knew Aidan was squished in on the other side of the wheel chair. He smiled slightly when he saw Joss.

"You forgot your phone this morning. I put it in your locker."

"Thanks. I don't even want to know how you made it into the woman's locker room without getting caught for peeping tomism," She replied dryly.

He smirked and, as the elevator shuttered to a stop and the doors opened, he winked at her before stepping out onto the floor and striding away.

"That the guy?" Mrs. Cook inquired as the elevator began to move again.

Joss could feel a slight blush staining her cheeks. "Yeah, that's the guy."

Mrs. Cook nodded. "Well, if you've got that handsome young man interested in you, I'd say you're lucky. I take back my suggestion of before. That one looks like a keeper."

As they exited the elevator, Joss couldn't help thinking that the woman was right. Aidan, despite everything that had occurred within the last year, was definitely a keeper. Time would tell what would come of this thing between them, but for now she was just glad that he had come into her life that night when she was being attacked by those vampires. She wouldn't trade what they had for anything, even her returned humanity.

**End of Part one**


	9. Days like this (Transition)

**This chapter is short, but will transition things over to the evolving story line.**

There are days when Joss wakes up and wishes her reality were a dream. A horrible, bizarre and insane dream. In the morning when she wakes, just for a minute she is able to forget what her world has become, to forget that she is a werewolf in love with her vampiric best friend and that her other best friend is a ghost. That things have become a mess all too quickly since Aidan was forced to do Mothers bidding and that for the first time ,since being scratched and launched into bizzaro land, she feels completely alone. Aidan is off being second in the leading of Boston, the tantalizing promise of absolute freedom from the other Vampires too much for him not to take on the job and Sally is dealing with her own ghost issues, also disappearing for long lengths of time, although she is still present enough to lock Joss in to her newly rented storage unit so she can change every full moon in safety. There are so many days that she just wants to sit in her room and cry from frustration, because things seem to be going nowhere and her family, her biological family, hounds her every other week to come home and get help for her Psychosis. Instead she throws herself into trying to find a cure for her condition, recording her changes and the wolf's actions on the night of the moon. Aidan may no longer be able to be there for her all the time, but she'll be damned if she's going give up on herself.

Sometimes, on the nights when she can't sleep, she reflects on everything that has come to pass since she was changed. She wonders what happened to Ray after she forced him to leave her alone, if he'd found a pack or if he was still drifting aimlessly. Sometimes she thinks about her family and about Julian, her ex-fiancé. She wants to ask her sister about him so badly, just to make sure he's moved on and that he is okay. He was her best friend and her first love; she had planned on spending the rest of her life with him and eventually having children, because that was what you did right? That was what was normal. Except now she wonders if that would have been enough, if she would have been truly happy. Part of her says no and she hates it, because normal is what she wants to be so badly, but if she had been normal she would never have met Aidan or Sally and she loves them too much to want to imagine a world where they are not in her life.

Her nighttime reflections have also lead her to the conclusion that as much as she may love Aidan, that she and he are better off as friends. They have only ever shared one kiss, dozens upon dozens of meaningful looks and touches, but no defining words have ever been spoken. And that was how she was going to keep it. This wasn't some Twilight-esque romance after all, there would be no happily ever after with half mortal children (Joss didn't even think she was able to have children anymore) and the white picket fence; she would rather be happy with what she has with Aidan now, than try for something that in the long run could just turn out bad for both of them. It didn't mean she would ever stop loving him, she knew that that would never happen, but she could love him and still find a way to be happy without him. And really, if her happiness, her true balance in life, depended on a man, whether he was undead or not, than she was in trouble and it might just be time to take her dad up on his offers of therapy.

There are even days when Joss wonders if it wouldn't be better if she moved out and tried to live on her own. But in the end she always convinces herself that staying with Aidan and Sally is what is best; she loves her house, leaky pipes and all, and she loves what the three of them have created. Its this thought that she tries to hold on to as the months move forward, things go to hell again and she finds herself on the brink of a major breakdown, this time a real one and not one that her parents have imagined up to explain her behaviour of the past few years. And even when Aidan lets her down, she still holds on to it because she's beginning to think that it really would be better if her reality were a dream. At least in dreams you could wake yourself up before the monsters got you.


	10. Who's that guy hanging around you?

**A/N: New chapter. I do not own anything recognizable, I am just playing around. Now that's out of the way, the next chapter after this should be coming fairly quickly as I am about half way done writing it. I hope Aidan's thoughts aren't too out of character here. Mentions of season two.**

To say that Aidan was not having a good year would be an understatement. He had gone from trying to figure out how to live normally, without all the killing of people and fighting he had become so known for in the vampire community, and trying to cope with the idea that he was in love with Joss, to now having to help run an entire city of vampires. Mother had given him an opportunity, a chance to truly earn his freedom, but it did not come without its drawbacks and one of those was that he spent considerably less time at home. The other was that he had fallen back into his old habit of drinking live and while it certainly gave him more energy, it also weighed on his conscience, especially on the days that he did make it home or when he was at work and came face to face with Joss, who would look at him almost knowingly. Still, he knew that she ignored what he was capable of because she wasn't one to judge(although he often wondered if it was just him she reserved passing a final judgment on), as long as it was kept out of her life and her house. She always stressed that, that the house must be neutral ground where the three of them could just take a breath and be themselves, and he tried his best to live up to that expectation. He didn't want to consider what she would do if the full truth ever came out or he transgressed against her rule; Joss' ire would be fierce he knew and the thought that she might decide to leave was never far from his mind. He knew he was being selfish, especially as he reconnected with Suren and found himself falling back into all the feelings being with her caused, but he didn't want her to leave, even if he couldn't be with her, he wanted her to be part of his life as she had been for the past year or so.

And there in lay the problem, or at least one of them. Aidan was not good at sharing; he would be the first to admit it. What was his was his and damn you if you get in the way. His nature had always been a bit possessive, although not destructively so, and when he became a Vampire it only increased, probably because he had to struggle to hold on to anything good. So much so that when it would enter his life he held onto it with an iron fist. It was why he insisted on Henry staying by his side, even as petulant as he could become as the years went on, it was why he had Celine's name tattooed on his chest and why he threw himself so fully back in with Suren. It was why he couldn't let Joss go, even when he was practically ignoring her, because she was one of the good things in his life and once everything, his business with Mother, was over with he wanted to get back to that. Not that anything could happen between them, but he had hope that somehow things could get back to normal.

Again, he was being selfish; so very very selfish but he didn't care. Which lead him to the predicament he was in at the moment as he watched some tall, blond man hit on Joss at the nurses station. Oh, he knew who he was of course. There were only a few male nurses, the hospital still being most dominated by female side of the profession, and so he knew this man by sight even if he had never really interacted with him outside of a trauma. He watched surreptitiously from his vantage point by a med cart as Joss smiled, her hand rising to tuck a piece of hair behind her ear. He wondered if this was their first conversation or if he had missed something in the past few weeks; Joss hadn't said anything about seeing someone and Sally hadn't mentioned anything to him, so he hoped he was right in his estimation that there was nothing going on. Yet. There was nothing going on yet, because if the way that Joss was smiling at her new friend and the way he was looking at her as they talked was any indication, something could be starting very soon.

Aidan took a deep breath and closed his eyes briefly telling himself to reign it in. Joss was allowed to make friends, hell she could hook up with every guy she came across and it would be none of his business. And he had Suren now so really he had no right to be jealous. But you are, a little voice in the back of his mind, that always sounded just too much like Bishop for his liking, told him. You don't like sharing what's yours do you? He sighed and opened his eyes, expression schooled into one of apathy. He was pleased to see that Joss was gone leaving her new friend alone as he picked up a chart and strode away from the counter.

Get a grip Aidan, he scolded himself. What are you 20? You do not engage in petty emotions like Jealousy about who is talking to your best friend! Again his thoughts were bordering too far into sounding like something Bishop would say. Cursing to himself he moved towards the locker room; he had to go meet with Suren soon, he would have to talk to Joss later about this new development in her life. Selfish, the voice whispered, so very selfish.

**Hmm. I wonder who Joss' mysterious new man could be? Update coming soon!**


	11. The time awkward became a medium

**A/N: Hey. Sorry this has taken so long; its been sitting on my desktop for weeks, I've just been swamped. :p Next chapter is half way done, but no promises as to when it will be updated, especially as I really need to give some love to my other fic. ;)**

Joss hadn't always been so awkward or at least that's what her mother had told her once when she got exasperated with her for doing something socially embarrassing. There had been a time, as a child, when she had more confidence; she never knew what had caused her to change, but she suspected it had something to do with the sessions her father had made her go to where she had been analyzed and questioned constantly, all because she had failed to stop Emily from touching a pot on the stove and she had consequently burned her little hand. Due to her awkwardness Joss didn't have a lot of friends growing up and Emily had been her constant companion as well as her sister. When she was in the tenth grade she met Julian and immediately stuck her foot in her mouth, which she figured wasn't all that surprising as it seemed to happen on a daily bases. Despite this the two of them managed to somehow become friends, first being partnered together in biology and then branching out to actually spending time together outside of school. Having someone else aside from her sister, in her life, that believed in her and actually liked her for who she was, had been heaven sent and had allowed her to become more confident if not less awkward. In their first year if college, both pre-med, Julian asked Joss out on a date and everything just seemed to spiral from there. Before she knew it he was saying he loved her and they were moving in together and then he was down on one knee asking her to be with him for the rest of her life.

Everyone, all their friends and family, especially hers, were ecstatic and Joss was content. She had felt pushed her whole life, pressured by her parents expectations and judged by her father, that to make the choice to be with Julian felt like the only natural step to take. Of course that all changed when she had been camping one night with two of her friends and had been savagely attacked by a creature, which she now knew was Ray in his wolf state, and left for dead. After that night Joss stopped being awkward and just became afraid. She withdrew from her family and her Fiancé, something within her slowly rebelling, tugging unerringly towards something else.

The first night she had changed in to the wolf she had been terrified and the agony that suffused her body, as her organs rearranged themselves, her joints popped and bent and her body basically ripped itself apart only to reform into a monster, had almost been too much to bear. The next day she had seriously considered killing herself but found that she just couldn't go through with it; it would go against everything she had ever been taught as she grew up and she wanted so badly to hold on to what had been normal. Instead she ransacked Julian's apartment, took a few basic things while he was in class, and then left a note for both he and her family. Then she had left and eventually found herself working in a small greasy spoon where, after nearly receiving a beat down from some crazy blood suckers, she had met Aidan.

She found that from the very first she was able to be herself with him, that for whatever reason she felt comfortable with him. Aidan didn't care if she was a werewolf and he didn't care about her awkwardness or lack of social graces. If anything he seemed to find it highly amusing, but in a fond way. In the past years since leaving her family she had of course met other people, a few who were friendly and a few who were just looking to get into the pants of what appeared to them to just be a shy leggy young woman. Knowing that a guy just wants to take you out back and rut against you before moving on really hadn't been appealing to her, especially in her confused state of trying to cope with her condition. But Aidan treated her as an equal from the moment they met and he still did. She shouldn't have felt all that surprised when she started having feelings for him; he was easy to talk to, he genuinely cared about her and she knew that as much as he may roll his eyes or smirk at the things she did and said that were less then appropriate, he never judged her as most guys aside from Julian had and would.

When she was in her comfort zone, and being with Aidan and Sally constituted that, Joss was far less awkward then when in public and with people she didn't know. First impressions were key, her mother had always said, which was probably why she tried so hard and failed spectacularly most of the time to make a good one. Talking to men apparently was one area where she was destined to always make a fool of herself.

"Hey doe eyes."

The voice held an amused tone, which added warmth to it. She had been staring into space she realized as her gaze refocused and she found herself meeting a pair of bemused green eyes. She blushed and of course started stammering; later she would recount this encounter to Sally, in a rare moment when the ghost was actually around, in the relative safety of her room and would be amazed that she hadn't made a complete botch of the whole thing.

"Uh, hey, I mean hi…Nate?" somehow it turned into a question although of course she knew who he was. They had only ever spoken twice before but both times had left a lasting impression. The first time he had yelled at her for something that really wasn't her fault at all, and gave her a new nick name apparently, and the second had found him apologizing for the first encounter and trying to buy her coffee, an offer to which she had responded rather rudely if she was honest. She had been having a horrible day and Aidan and she had had an interesting encounter, chalk full of repressed tension or lust or whatever the hell it was between them, in the kitchen the night before; her mood had not been the greatest.

She continued speaking before he could confirm the queried identity, although again it really wasn't necessary; she wasn't likely to forget him. "Listen, I'm really sorry about how I acted the other day with the uh, with the coffee thing. I was just really stressed and tired and getting weird sexual vibes from my roommate and,"

She blinked rapidly then and he looked like he was forcing himself not to laugh. He's really good looking, she thought dazedly; he's got better hair than Aidan too, its very blonde, although not as thick looking…she forced this thought away and began stammering again, her brown eyes wide. "And wow, I am completely over sharing with you, like you would care about …I am just going to shut up now before I say something really embarrassing, not that, that wasn't embarrassing. If you want to run away now I wouldn't blame you at all."

He smirked, laughing slightly. "Wow," he said conversationally, "Its as if you're an artist and awkward is your medium. Why don't we start again? I'm Nate, the guy who bit your head off a while back for doing your job." He extended a hand and Joss found herself smiling and taking it in her smaller one.

"Joss, the raging female who threatened you in the cafeteria last week, when you tried to apologize."

"Well, I figure we're even now when it comes to bitchy tantrums." he said lightly, letting go of her hand, but still gracing her with amused eyes.

Joss raised a brow, but smiled and reached up to push a piece of her hair out of her eyes. "Bitchy tantrums? Are you sure you didn't just loose your man card there, using that word."

He laughed; it was a nice sound she thought. Warm, like his voice. "I'm pretty sure I'm good; we get a few free passes a month before they come and take it away."

Someone came through the doors just at the end of the hall closest to them and Joss found herself inhaling deeply, although hopefully not obviously, as the familiar smell of vampire reached her nose. Aidan was close by.

"Uh it was nice talking to you," she found herself saying. "We should maybe do it again?" Inwardly she winced, why do you always make everything sound like a question? She could practically hear Emily in her ear yelling, confidence! "We should do it again." She reasserted.

Nate still seemed to be trying not to laugh, but he nodded. "Yeah, definitely. I'll buy you that coffee I offered last week."

"It's a date," she said quickly and then of course reverted into stammering mode, "I mean, not a date date, obviously. Its just an expression, unless you want it to be."

"I have a feeling your never boring," he laughed. "Whatever you want it to be Joss."

"Right." She needed to get out of there before she chased him away with her awkwardness. "Um, well I need to get going. I'll see you later." She was so glad it didn't come out as a question.

"Yeah, later." He replied as she hurried away, seeing Aidan out of the corner of her eye seemingly looking for something on a med cart. Had he seen her and Nate? What did he think if he had? She wanted to run up to him and tell him everything that had just occurred, get his opinion as she always had, but that could just lead to some absurd and awkward conversation. She knew what he would say, what he always said; she owed it to herself to try. Still, she would definitely try to talk to Sally about it if she could. She hoped that she wasn't getting ahead of herself, but she had felt a connection of sorts there with Nate; definitely worth exploring if you don't mess this up like you always do, she chided herself. If part of her felt like she was betraying what she felt for Aidan, she ignored it.


	12. Musings of a ghost roommate

**A/N: Don't own anything recognizable.** **Enjoy the chapter.**

Sometimes Sally just wants to grab her roommates and slam their heads together, something that she could very easily now do if she possessed a body(not that she would, not after getting stuck inside Janette. Joss still won't let her hear the end of that one; she's like a broken record already). But what she really wants to do is lock them in a room together and not let them out until they talk out or better yet act out all the pent up lust or whatever it is that is going on with them. Of course, Aidan would probably break down the door and Joss would act all sulky and mopey for the next week, so that plan has been out of contention pretty much from the moment it first entered her mind. She wants to scream at them, tell them, look guys your alive, you like each other, and you want to jump each other's bones? Then do it, more power to you! Again, though, this plan never seems to come to fruition, mostly because Aidan is never home to yell at and she knows that its him that will have to make the first move, initiate the bone jumpingness of it all. I just want them to be happy, she tells herself; they are good people, monsters, whatever they want to call themselves. They are alive (or relatively alive in Aidan's case) and should be happy. She would give anything to have the chances they do, to be able to just revel in the touch of someone else. Its as she is considering this that Joss comes home.

"Hey," Joss says, seeing her sitting in the window. She smiles and moves to go up the stairs, an almost faraway look in her brown eyes. Sally watches her, surprised she hasn't yet commented on the mess the house is in or the dirt Aidan tacked across the floor earlier that day. Joss is pretty she decides as the werewolf turns back to face her seeming to want to say something other than her quick greeting, but hesitating all the same. If she just wore less flannel and maybe some makeup…

"So, I uh kind of asked someone out today." She says it quickly and then nods as if relived she had said it.

"You what?" Sally jumped up, a delighted smile gracing her lips. "Joss! That is…well what's his name? What does he do? Do I know him? Does Aidan?" The questions spilled from her mouth in quick succession, her happiness for her friend palpable.

Joss blinked at her, processing her rapid-fire inquisition. "Um, his name is Nate, he's a nurse, no and yes." And then she turned and ran up the stairs to her room. Of course this didn't stop Sally from following her, as if the imposition of a mere door had ever been an obstacle to her in life or death.

"So, is he hot?" She asked as she materialized in the room and sat on Joss' bed. Joss scowled at her, in the process of changing her shirt.

"Do you mind?"

"No. So give me the down low; you know I have to live vicariously through you and Aidan and I mean, I don't want to know what goes on with him and creepy vampire princess."

"Me neither," she thought she heard Joss mutter as she finished pulling her shirt off. There was a scar on her side, paler than her normally pale skin, the mate of one on her arm, remnants of the night she was attacked and her last night as fully human. Joss caught her looking and quickly pulled on a long sleeved shirt at random.

"So?" Sally looked at her expectantly, shaking off the impulse to ask about the scars in detail. Joss never wanted to talk about that night, although she suspected that she had told Aidan everything.

Joss sat beside her and sighed. "Yeah, he's hot. I mean I'm pretty sure this guy is way out of my league and I'm pretty sure I just about scared him away with all my awkward stammering and really we haven't made concrete plans yet…"

Sally grinned, "Yet. Oh, I'm so proud of you!" she gushed. "Look at you, asking random hot nurses out. Don't sell yourself short, if he said yes when you asked him out then he is into you enough to at least want to get to know you better. At worse, he could be just looking for a good time, which really wouldn't be that bad. One of us should be having sex and I don't mean Aidan."

Joss snorted trying not to laugh. "I don't know, I think he has enough for all us."

"I know he's such a man whore."

Sally was glad she had decided to stay in and wait and see if Joss or Aidan was going to show up. She hadn't had a normal conversation with Joss in some weeks and she missed the other woman's awkward cuteness.

"I'm really glad for you, you know?" she said sincerely, "You should bring him here, have dinner or whatever. That way if it goes bad its not you who has to make up excuses why you have to leave. And if it goes good, no walk of shame."

Joss rolled her eyes. "I am not sleeping with him on the first date."

"Oh, you say that now, but trust me if your both feeling it, it will happen," she teased. "So, you going to tell Aidan?"

Joss shrugged and stood, "Do I need to? I mean he's never around. The most interaction I've had with him lately was the other day when we had an oh so awkward encounter in the kitchen. It was lovely, full of mixed signals. He started to say something I started to say something. We said nothing at all and he gave me that brooding look."

It was Sally's turn to roll her eyes. She should have just locked them in that room. "So it was a magical moment."

"It was something. I don't want to think about it. If Aidan asks, I will tell him about Nate. But he won't ask, so I guess he'll just have to find out on his own. I'm hungry, I'm uh going to make dinner."

She left the room then and Sally shook her head; that room idea is looking better and better, she thought. Of course, if Joss had a boyfriend, or at least another guy interested in her, that had all the potential of making Aidan Jealous and if he was jealous and realized that Joss had other options maybe he would finally do something about all the pent up lust and get on with the jumpingness of it all. And if he didn't, she rationalized then at least Joss will have the Nate option open to her. I think I need to do some snooping, check this guy out, she mused. It'll be good to worry about something normal for once, instead of my own drama. And with that thought she popped off to the hospital to scope out Joss' new paramour.


	13. Blow torches and sexy nurses

"You have a really nice house."

Joss glanced at Nate, who was looking around her kitchen, from where he was leaning against the counter as she poured some wine. She was so nervous; it was surprising that her hands weren't shaking. It was just the two of them, as Sally, who had promised to lurk upstairs in case Joss needed her to cause some kind of ghost energy induced scene, had mysteriously disappeared as she so often did these days and Aidan… well he was never around anymore anyway, so she wasn't holding out for him to show up.

"Yeah, we like it. I mean it could use some work, but Aidan is always too busy and I'm hopeless with tools and our landlord is in jail for murder so…" she trailed off realizing what she had just said and began to blush as Nate raised an incredulous brow.

"I mean…would you like some wine?" This was going horribly. Why couldn't she just shut up for once? Bring up topics like the weather or work. Wasn't that what you were supposed to talk about on a first date? She didn't know really, she'd been with Julian so long and known him well before they ever got romantically involved, so it had never been awkward. Although, it had also never made her feel as excited as she did now, embarrassing herself in front of this man in her kitchen.

"So," he took the glass of wine from her along with the bowl of crème brulee she was holding out to him like an offering. "You and Aidan. What's all that about? Cause the gossip at the Nurses Station has you two being pretty serious."

She laughed lightly, wondering if she would ever get used to the presumption that her and Aidan had been or were anything other than…well she wasn't sure what they were at the moment, seeing as he was never around. She hadn't actually really talked to him in three days, although she was sure he had come in the night before.

"And yet, here I am with you." They moved to the couch and she sipped her wine, trying not to feel too anxious. " Aidan and I are just, we're just friends?"

"Are you sure about that, cause you don't sound too sure. I mean I get it, you're in that place where you don't really know what to think, your trying your options…"

Joss shook her head and turned to face him, smiling slightly. "No. I mean our relationship is complicated. He's my friend. My only friend really, which is sad," she reflected. "He helped me through a really rough time in my life, got me my job, pays half the rent so I can actually live in a house and not a motel where I have to listen to sugar bear get it on in the next room…"

Nate looked at her seriously, "That is sad." And then he smiled. Joss was finding that she loved his smile; it was very free and open, like what you saw was what you got.

They lapsed into other conversation as they ate and she was surprised at how easy it all was once her nerves had subsided a bit. This could be so dangerous, she mused at one point; I can actually see myself wanting to spend time with him.

"Joss, this is shockingly good," he pointed to the crème brulee with his spoon and she smiled a little self deprecatingly,

"Thank you. But the torch really did the uh heavy lifting,"

He rolled his eyes, but not in a mean way, " Who has a kitchen torch besides Martha Stewart and her newly wedded minions? That's something you register for and never take out of the box,"

She wondered if he was speaking from experience even as she laughed and said, "Yeah, that's what my fiancé said."

He set his bowl down and looked at her incredulously, but with interest. "You were engaged?" he paused, "Where you married?"

Joss could have kicked herself. Where are you when I need a ghost-induced emergency Sally? She silently cursed; she had not wanted to talk about Julian tonight, but Nate was making her feel so comfortable that it had just slipped out. She sighed.

"Uh no, no." she said softly, leaning forward and not looking at him.

"What happened?"

She looked back at him, unaware that he could see the sadness in her big brown eyes. "It's a long story." She picked up her glass and looked away from him again. "Um, it just…it just didn't end well."

"Too young?" she could tell that he wasn't really trying to pry, more just genuinely interested in what could have happened. If she decided not to continue the line of conversation she sensed that he wouldn't mind. She shook her head and sat back, "uh, I changed." An understatement if there ever was one.

He nodded, "You answer questions like an escaped convict."

"Yeah?" she laughed.

"Mysterious. Not too much detail."

And just like that the mood was lightened again and they moved on,

"The details would bore you," she said flippantly, "I'm a Jewish kid from Ithaca."

"As in Ithaca is gorgeous?" He shook his head, "Cute, doe eyes. What about college?"

She hesitated, tapping her knee with her hand, "MIT," she said almost reluctantly. She knew what question would come next; it was the same when Jesse had found out where she had studied.

"Shut up."

She shrugged, "Well, anyone can get in."

Again with the incredulous look. She wondered if she was just always surprising him with what she said, or he just didn't know what to make of her. "What are you doing folding hospital corners?"

"Life experience?" she said evasively, the answer coming out as a question. Their eyes met and he raised a brow; after a moment she looked away and grabbed his glass off the table.

"More wine? I'll just get you some more wine." And then she was off the couch and into the kitchen where she leaned against the counter and tried not to hyperventilate. A few minutes later Nate came in, obviously wondering what had happened to her, and she took the plate and bowl he was carrying and handed him the glass of wine. He didn't ask if anything was wrong and for that she was so grateful she wanted to kiss him then and there.

" I like these plates, they've got character." It was such a strange thing for a guy to say, she thought, but it did the trick, as it was obviously meant to, because she found herself smiling again.

"Thanks, we found them at a flea market. Aidan had a few from an old set so…"

He brought the rest of the dishes from the table as she began to fill the sink. "Is that how you two ended up living together? Your love of vintage china?" he was being sarcastic she could tell, but again she could also tell that he wasn't trying to be nasty; it just seemed to be part of his normal interaction. She shook her head, smiling a bit as she rolled the sleeves of her shirt up.

"Actually no," she found herself admitting, even though she had promised herself not to talk about Aidan again that night. "We uh, we met in a fight."

She looked back at him and instead of looking horrified that she would be in a situation like that he merely looked curious. "Well sort of a fight. I was being fought. Pummeled really. He um, he saved me from getting any bones broken or needing a nose job. Not that I would have been able to afford a nose job. He kind of just came up and told them to back off, punched one guy in the face, broke his nose, it was a memorable night

"Ah, so you're a fighter. That's hot."

She frowned, "Really, cause I'm really not…"

He stepped in closer to her, backing her up against the sink, "No, but that's OK." She didn't have time to tell if he was joking because then he was kissing her, his hands settling on her hips, bringing her in closer. It was different from when she had been kissed last, although she still felt lust taking over and reason leaving her head; it was as if there was more to this but also less. Joss wrapped her arms around his neck and pushed herself up on her toes, evening out the height difference, kissing him back hard and almost with abandon. Suddenly she felt herself being lifted and set on the counter, his hands running up her sides sending a tingle down her spine, and her grip tightened and she found herself biting at his lip.

Nate pulled back slightly and chuckled, "Well now,"

She found herself a bit out of breath but she still managed a breathy "Sorry,"

"No, relax, its ok," he kissed her again, but she pulled away, "Am I being too…"

"Your fine Joss, believe me your fine,"

"Yeah?"

"Yeah." And this time it was she that initiated the kissing, that is until another thought struck her. "I just want to make sure, I'm not being too aggressive."

He sighed and rested his forehead against hers, "What happened to you?" he asked wonderingly, one hand coming up to smooth the hair away from her face. Meeting his eyes as he moved away, but only slightly so they could look at each other, she saw a genuine interest and confusion, as if the thought of something damaging her was actually upsetting, even though they had only known each other a short time.

It was at that moment of course that Aidan had to walk in.

"Uh, sorry. I didn't know you had company Joss."

She looked at him, her arms still wrapped around Nate, her hair a bit disheveled and her lips looking thoroughly kissed. His expression was almost unreadable, schooled into passive amusement at finding her in her current position, one leg almost wrapped around Nate, as well as her arms, but there was also something else there that made her feel inexplicably sad.

She detangled herself from Nate, who stepped back to let her slip off the counter. "Uh yeah. I'm sure you know Nate, from the hospital." This was so awkward.

Aidan smiled slightly. "Yeah. Good to see ya. I just needed to grab something from the fridge but I'll leave you guys to it." He started to walk away and then stopped. "I'm not going to be home tonight Joss. You need a ride tomorrow?"

She shook her head and realized that he couldn't see her so she said haltingly, "Uh, no. I'm good. I'll just walk in. Its fine."

He nodded, "Ok. Well have a good night guys." And then he was gone.

Joss sighed and ran a hand through her hair, turning to look at Nate and then she couldn't help laughing and burying her head in her hands. "That was so embarrassing. I am so sorry he walked in like that."

"Hey," he gently pried her hands away from her face. "Its fine. I should probably head out anyway."

They headed for the door where she watched him put on his coat and then he kissed her again, softly and smiled slightly. "See you at work doe eyes." She watched him walk to his car and only when he was gone did she close the door and sigh heavily. Turning back towards the living room she jumped and placed a hand over her heart. How many times had she told her…

"Sorry," Sally said from the couch. "You were heavy petting so I hid in your room. Nice guy by the way. That was definitely heading somewhere until Aidan came in."

Joss sighed and sat down beside her. "Maybe."

Sally fixed her with a look of fond exasperation. "Did you have fun?"

Joss bit her lip, but couldn't help smiling. "Yeah. I think I might really like him Sally." She felt strange admitting this, like she was betraying something or someone.

"Good. I am so reading Aidan the riot act when he gets home; he made things so awkward. He always does that with guys who want to sleep with you."

Joss rolled her eyes, "What? No. He didn't know we were in there."

"Oh come on Joss. He does. He did it with Jesse, who by the way was in to you in a bad way, and he could have just walked away quickly when he saw you and Nurse McSexy practically getting it on there on the counter."

Joss closed her eyes and leant her head back, resting it against the back of the couch. " Well maybe it's a good thing he did come in then. I don't think I'm ready to go that far with him yet."

"Pssh," It was Sally's turn to roll her eyes. "Your human Joss. Your always ready to go there."

"Well, we can't all be horn dogs," she said lightly, still keeping her eyes closed.

"If I could pick this pillow up and throw it at you I so would."


	14. There will be days like this

**A/N: I am not very happy with this chapter, but I thought I would put it up anyways; I just don't have the energy to fight with it. So I'll probably go back and fix it later. I hope you like it though and its not too confusing.**

Sometimes Aidan wonders why he made himself stop drinking live; why its so important to deny himself that rush, that high that only comes from that first initial sinking of the teeth into skin and the feel of the victims fear causing their blood to pound in their veins, enticing and enthralling in it headiness. It only takes a few moments of clarity after he has come down from his high to remember why though, to recognize that like all recovering junkies who fall into a relapse, that there is always a major drawback, something which outweighs the high, which made you stop in the first place. Hearing voices had never been one of his, but really he's not surprised that after binging, in his lowest moment, Bishop is right there to share all his vampiric wisdom with his wayward son. Of course the fact that he really isn't there, can't be, doesn't have any bearing, nor does it stop him from having a conversation with him.

"You are so blood drunk right now, you probably don't even think I'm really here."

Your not, part of him wants to scream, you are not here! It both comforts him and makes him feel irrationally pissed off that Bishop is talking to him, that his ghost? memory? would show up just when he's messed up royally and is higher than a kite. As if things hadn't been going horribly already, what with not being able to get rid of the new born vampires properly, and not being able to find Henry, who he desperately needs to talk to, or not being able to help Sally with her reaper issue. Oh and of course there is the fact that Joss, his Joss, has a boyfriend. Not just a friend that is a guy, but an actual boyfriend who she does things with, like kiss and have sex (although he doesn't know for sure they are doing this, but come on who wouldn't?) and who makes her smile and laugh(and it just makes him want to throw something really hard or rip someone's head off). Who doesn't know her really, not like he does, and he is so tired of everything in his life being so fucked up. Of course Bishop would come now, he always knew to hit just when Aidan was the most confused and messed up. If now wasn't one of those moments, he didn't know what counted.

"Mr. Holier than thou turned out to be the most ruthless of us all didn't he?" his tone held triumph, satisfaction.

Aidan looked at Bishop from where he sat beside him, looking so smug ,and wished he could rip the man's head off again. "You have no idea what you're talking about."

"Really? I have a sever head that says differently." The Bishop vision shakes his head, "Aidan, you killed me. You're probably going to kill Henry. You'll cut yourself a path right to the castles front door. Whatever it takes to rule beside Suren."

It's his turn to shake his head, to deny. "That's not who I am, that's not what I want." He is crying now, a strange feeling for a vampire, as actual tears do not fall. He doesn't want Suren, not really. What he wants is to get back to his life before Mother commanded him to be Boston's second, he wants his job and his two crazy best friends and his house. He wants to find Henry and make amends and he wants to be able to be with the person he loves and have her know that it has been her since the moment they met in that alley.

"Maybe you'll kill her too." He is so out of it that he doesn't know if Bishop is talking about Surren or _her_ and it's a struggle to try and get a grip on his emotions.

"First order of business." Bishop jumps up, all pep and purpose. "Kill Henry."

Eventually he makes it home, Bishop in tow, and of course as soon as he walks in Joss comes down the stairs, probably headed for work. She smiles slightly at him.

"Hey,"

He hesitated for a moment as Bishop walked past him and said, "You've done some work on the place."

Joss frowned, a slight furrowing of the brow and for a moment he is sure that she too can hear Bishop, so he haltingly speaks,

"Hey."

"You okay?"

"Never better." Yeah, like I can really fool her, he thinks as Bishop examines the ceramic cat wearing the catchers mask in the corner.

"So," she slings her bag over her shoulder still looking put-off, "Where were you last night?"

"Just waiting on a friend," he is being gruff, but this whole situation is tenuous at best and he just wants her to go before Bishop talking to him makes him snap.

"You don't have any friends. Like fantasy football or poker buddies. You don't know guys like that," she stepped closer to him, her expression becoming serious and dare he say a little pissed off? "So what friends? Princess Zero?"

"It was an old friend." Exasperation entered his voice now.

"My god!" Bishop circled round them, rolling his eyes. "Is your wife always this much of nag?"

"I'm old, Joss" he ignored the wife remark and moved towards the chair by the couch.

She stared at him for a moment, "Okay." And then dropped her bag and moved quickly towards him. "Now that you're here, I need to talk to you about something. I mean I need to talk to _someone_."

He sighed and sat in the chair, "What?"

"I keep having these dreams, like these really vivid dreams about tearing Nate apart."

He raised an eyebrow and she rolled her eyes. "Not like that. I mean, its not me who's doing it, it's the wolf; I keep seeing myself change and attack him. And the closer it gets to the moon, the more vivid they become. I've been having them for like three months now and its like any day I'm going to just attack him. And I don't know what to do, how to make this go away."

"Oh I can think of an easy way to make this go away," Bishop mimicked shooting Joss and he couldn't help laughing a bit. Joss frowned.

"Yeah, we could make this all go away," he found himself saying. "You could just break up with him, which would be the easy way out, or you can you know, talk to him, say hey Nate just need to let you know that I want to kill you. Well not me, but the murderous creature I turn into every month. There's that. You know tell him how you'd like to maul him, how you've killed before."

Joss jumped up from where she had been sitting on the couch. "You know that wasn't my fault Aidan! If it hadn't been for you and your crazy obsessive relationship with Bishop I never would have been in that situation!"

He was slightly taken aback, Joss had never yelled at him nor had he ever seen her so angry, but he had to admit it was also somewhat of a turn on.

"That's right, because none of it was you at all, no part of you wanted to kill that guy even a little bit."

She crossed her arms and stared at him coolly. "This is cute, what your doing."

"That's because I'm cute!" he yelled somewhat hysterically.

The look on her face, the hurt and confusion at his behaviour, caused his erratic mood to shift yet again and he stood up shakily, blocking her path to the door. "Look, all I'm saying Joss is that this isn't you. You're trying to work out something that is complicated, trying to change your self for him. That is not you, you don't change who you are."

"And who I am is a monster right? I'm the girl who can't be in a normal relationship because I want to kill my boyfriend. You know, thanks for the advice Aidan, I thought since you had some experience dealing with situations like this, you might you know, help me out a bit. Clearly I was wrong. So when the cops come after me with their evidence and accusations and ask me where I was the night my boyfriend was murdered, I can say well I was turning into a werewolf and hey here's the video tapes of me changing in my storage locker and oh here's my journal to prove it! Cause I'll know, don't bother asking Aidan for an alibi, he's too busy being a jack ass to care!"

"You really need to kill her," Bishop advised from the chair.

Aidan just looked at Joss sadly and bit his bottom lip slightly, trying to figure out how he could fix this or if he even could. Joss shook her head, steely resolve and disappointment evident.

'Great. So I'll just see you at work, barring my imminent killing spree and arrest." She grabbed her bag and moved around him intent on leaving, but not before she threw back one last barb.

"Oh yeah and Sally's mother died. But Sally's great. She's great." And then she was gone, slamming the door behind her.

Joss' words stay with him throughout the day, through her cold silence towards him as they attempt to have dinner with Sally's mom and her boyfriend and as Henry finally finds him. So no one could blame him for being pissed off and almost killing his son, because he is so done with it all and if he is resorting to hurting the only actual live person who cares about him, than he has reached the point of no return.

"I can't do this anymore," he tearfully dropped the stake that he was holding to Henry's heart and sank back on the ground.

"What then, do you suggest? If its the shadows again, kill me now."

"I'm going to find a way to make this right for you," he promises. For both of us.

As Henry leaves and Bishop speaks, admonishing and consoling in the same breath, Aidan knows that this is it. If there was ever a time in his life that he needed to take a stance, be firm in his resolve, this is it. He will save Henry and he will get his life back. If Bishop did one thing right after all, it was teach him how to survive, how to thrive and that was just what he was going to do.


	15. The full moon coming round

Joss came awake slowly; the taste of bile in her throat and her skin itchy with caked mud and dried blood. She didn't want to know where the blood had come from, didn't want to consider what she could have done the night before. For a moment she simply laid there blinking at the harsh light of the sun, too tired to move, although she knew that she should. Eventually, as she began to feel more awake, coherent thought came and she found herself wondering why she was outside and not in her storage locker or the basement of the hospital. And then it all came rushing back and she was on her feet and hurriedly running through the woods to the shed where she had left her clothes, only one thought prevalent: I have to find Nate.

She had known that dating would be a mistake; hadn't she always told Aidan and Sally that being with someone would only lead to messiness and heartache? If she had taken her own advice instead of theirs none of this would be happening now and she wouldn't feel like she was about to have a heart attack at any minute. To love is to destroy and she loved Nate, had only admitted it the night before in fact, but now she had ruined him. It had all started with those dreams, those horrible realistic dreams where they would be sitting on the couch kissing one moment and the next she would be sprouting claws and fangs and savagely attacking her boyfriend. And then when they were actually together, when things started getting carried away, she would find herself biting at him, scratching at him and once even letting out a growl. The one time they had had sex had been interesting to say the least and she was sure Nate now thought she had some control issues when really the wolf was pushing her towards something she really couldn't explain. The closer it got to the moon the more she would find herself staring at him at work or when they were together and a strange feral feeling would over take her.

She'd tried asking Aidan for help, for advice on how to control herself, she knew he had plenty of experience with that, but he had been brusurque and standoffish and then contrite all within a matter of minutes. It had scared her as much as it angered her, because she could tell that he had been binging and if this Jack Ass was what emerged in the place of her best friend than she wanted no part of that. So she decided that if she couldn't control herself than maybe a bit of distance would be best; of course Nate apparently didn't get the memo and it all came to a head last full moon. She had needed to change in the hospital because the building where her storage unit was had been temporarily closed for fumigation(she didn't even want to consider what kind of nasty bugs had been in the unit while she was in there. Naked. Ughh).

"Joss!"

She had just entered the room when she heard him behind her.

"Nate, what…what are you doing? You can't be here." The moon was going to rise soon, she could feel the pull in her bones; the first tingle setting in.

"What? I can't come down to the basemet of the hospital? The question is, what are you doing down here Joss? You've been acting weird, okay, _weirder_ than normal lately."

She shook her head, "I haven't, I mean I just…look can we talk about this later?" Her breath was quickening and she had to remind herself to try and remain calm.

"You have," he crossed his arms and raised a brow. She wondered if she ran at him would she have enough force to push him over so she could escape?

"I've been thinking," she threw out haphazardly, trying to think of anything, anything at all, that would get him out of there. "I think we should just pace it down. A little." The tingle was spreading and she knew that soon she would be convulsing.

"Okay. Wow." His expression was not shocked, but he did seem a little pissed off.

"Just a little," She clarified. "I just want to dial it back, just so we don't ramp up and get too intense. I hope you understand." I can't believe I'm having this conversation now. Why now?

He nodded, "Its murky," he said sardonically. "But I think I'm beginning to see the bottom. So basically, we are still together, but not together like we were before, because that is too intense, although what's so intense about no sex and watching TV I don't know. So does this mean we see other people?"

She was beginning to sweat and her arm was hurting. It always was the first thing to start to feel the change and then she would get a pain in her side. "Um, sure. I mean I don't want you to see other people, I'm not going to, but…You know what?No. No don't see other women."

"You know for a woman, you are surprisingly Neanderthal."

She had to try not to laugh, even when the situation was so serious. This was why she was falling in love with him.

"I want to be with you Nate. I want to be with _you._ But there is _something_ in my life and it has nothing to do with you, or another man, and I didn't kill anyone." A lie of course, but it had been self defense really.

"That's remarkably not reassuring if you have to point that out."

She sighed; he really needed to go, now. "Its just something private. About me. And it needs to stay that way."

He looked slightly less pissed off, which was good, but she still needed him to leave. "I know that makes me seem incredibly unappealing, but I don't know…I don't know how else to do this. You really should go."

He didn't move though, rather he didn't move out of the room but closer to her.

"Stay back…just stay where you are please." She closed her eyes briefly, close to tears. "I don't want this for you Nate, but I really don't know what else to do. I've hurt my family by keeping this to myself and my fiancé, it wasn't just that we were young, it was this _thing_. I don't want to hurt you; I don't want to hurt you too."

She couldn't stop him then as he stepped close to her, and cradled her tear stained face, she hadn't even known she was crying, in his hands. "Joss, you won't hurt me."

"How do you know? You can't know that."

He rubbed her cheek with his thumb, soothingly. "Because I know you doe eyes. I've seen my share of bad things in life and met some really bad people, but you are not one of them."

She wanted to reply, to push him away, but it was then that the first convulsions struck. She hunched over letting out a sharp cry and tried to push him away from her self, turning around quickly so he couldn't see her face or hands.

"Joss are you okay?" he asked worriedly, reaching for her.

She shook with another convulsion, trying to suppress a scream of pain and instead let out a groan. "Nate get out of here. Please." She hunched over holding her hands to her chest as her teeth began to elongate and claws sprouted. She could feel her bones shifting. As she gasped for breath she felt his hands on her back.

"Joss, just let me look at you."

"No," she shook her head, her tears starting anew. "No, no no. You can't. NO!" and then she was up, ripping herself away from his hands, grabbing him by the arms and with a surge of energy brought on by her impending change, she propelled him out of the room and slammed the door closed. And then she did allow herself to scream in agony; there was no keeping it back now. She had seen his face, the confusion and the fear. Later she would find out that he had seen her whole change through the window of the door, seen her face elongate and her back break, her legs bend impossibly and her chest pop out. He had heard her scream and cry and he had stayed for the whole thing, even though by all rights he should have run and run fast. No one but Aidan and Sally had ever seen her change; it was the most intimate thing she could share with someone and yet when she found out he had been there the whole time, she found that she was okay with him seeing.

In the days that followed, once she realized he was still talking to her, that he still wanted to be around her and be with her, she had told him how it had happened, about Ray, she told him everything, about how it happened every month but she was trying to find a cure and she repeated how sorry she was until he took her in his arms and told her that it wasn't her fault; he knew now and maybe, just maybe they would be okay. She had wanted that more than anything, because it was so freeing to finally be honest, to be able to talk about it and not have to hide who she was. Nate was surprisingly good about it all, especially when he found out about Aidan being a vampire and she explained that she lived with a ghost too. She should have clued in then, especially when he asked so many questions about her change, but she had so wanted everything to be good. And then last night had happened.

"Nate!" She tore through the woods, panic overtaking her. Just breath Joss, she told herself, deep breaths. Her arm hurt and she knew that she would have to get Aidan, although she was still pissed at him, or someone to look at it but not until she found Nate. "Nate!"

He had insisted on driving her to the woods, because the unit was still locked down, and after some argument she had let him although she hadn't been happy about it.

"When I was a freshman in College," he said, catching her out of the blue as they came to a stop. "I woke up in some theatre majors apartment with my cloths across the room, covered in vomit. I puked in front of the whole party. Repeatedly." He looked at her sidelong and she must have looked confused because he said, "the point is that once you've picked your way across a theatre geeks apartment in the cold light of day after a drinking binge…"

"Its not the same Nate."

"No," he said slowly, seriously "Its not the same thing. But the reason I want to be here for you is that I don't want you to feel alone in this."

She took in his words for a moment and then clarity hit. "You want to hold my hair back while I vomit."

He laughed slightly, "Yes."

"Essentially," she nodded, touched by his admission and as she turned to look at him she realized something. She blinked a few times, trying to process her new thought, but she knew she had to say something.

"I love you." They stared at each other for a moment, her admission lingering between them. She finally broke the silence, saying, "And now, seriously, get as far away from me as possible." And then she had kissed him, trying not to tear up, because everything seemed to make her want to cry lately, and then she had exited the car and headed for the woods. It had been when the change began that she had heard the unmistakable sounds of someone else changing, the wind carrying the screams and groans of agony to her, and she had known that it was him and something told her to go to him then, that she had to. So she had, or at least she'd tried because as she'd tore through the woods towards him she's been stopped abruptly by a gun shot to the arm from none other than her not so friendly Amish vampire friend and his silver rifle. After that it was a blur and she didn't even have time to wonder why he was after her before the change over took her. But she did remember another wolf saving her from being killed. Nate. Nate had saved her and now she had to find him.

Eventually she found herself back where she had started and noticing Hageman's gun on the ground, picked it up. She then made her way back towards the road just in case Nate had made it there. He hadn't, although the car was there and in bad shape and so she knew that the best recourse would be to go home and wait and hope he would show up and be whole and okay. Although she didn't think that anything was going to be okay anymore, because she had done the one thing she had promised she would never do and that was change someone. Worse, someone she loved.

As she neared the house, an hour later, she was just able to make out someone sitting on the front steps, their head between their jean clad knees. As she approached, he looked up.

"I looked everywhere for you," she said hollowly. "I thought you were…" she blinked rapidly, because there were those cursed tears again. She really needed to see if she had some kind of hormone imbalance.

He nodded, knowing what she was thinking, understanding that she had been afraid he was dead.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah. Just a little shaky." He sounded dazed.

She looked down and saw the scratch marks on his arm and not for the first time in days to come, she mentally kicked herself for not seeing them before. To be fair he had worn long sleeved shirts and at night when they were in bed it was too dark to see anything really. She reached out and touched them lightly, tracing them with her fingers. "I did this to you."

She had to sit down, she felt like the air had been knocked out of her. As she sat beside him, close, but not really touching, she let the tears fall silently, because she didn't want him to hear and comfort her. She didn't deserve comfort and this wasn't about her. She did notice that the feeling that had been consuming her of late was gone, although replaced with some other nameless pull, and she realized with sickening clarity that the wolf had been looking for a mate and it had found it. I'm going to fix this, she silently resolved. I need to fix this. It was just as she was turning to tell Nate that they should go inside that she was hit by another very familiar feeling and had to jump up and run to the side of the house to be sick in the bins there. Today is not going to be a good day.


	16. The issue of trust

**A/N: There are aspects of season one and season two here. I think this is the longest chap so far; please enjoy.**

Trust is something that once given is hard to keep. It is something to be treasured and upheld. Trust allows bonds to be formed, creating the idea that you can rely on the other person, that they know you and you them; when you give someone your trust you become vulnerable and with vulnerability the cracks that couldn't form before you let your guard down begin to show. But the bonds you form with some people will make you look past anything; ignore what they've become. You'll hang on to the version you want to remember and not the one in front of you, the one that is breaking all the trust you have built up, testing the limits of that bond. And yet still you hold onto that version of them, idealized, because if you can't believe in them, trust them, then what does that say about you?

Joss often found herself wondering about how easily Aidan had taken her in. She had never been one to trust easily, she'd always been rather cynical. But Aidan…he broke through her defenses almost right away and he had proved himself worthy of her trust time and time again. Granted there had been times, such as when he left her to the mercy of the other vampires or more recently with his erratic behaviour, when he had let her down, but she believed in him. Aidan was good, he was supportive when she needed it, he always knew just what to do and he kept his word; never had he brought anything connected to his life with the vampires into their house. He knew what that meant to her and even when she was mad at him she still respected that he had enough respect for her to do that, no matter how hard it was. Still, there are times, she supposes that exceptions must be made.

"Oh god," she groaned as she leaned over the sink dry heaving, thankful that she hadn't thrown up. Slowly, she raised her eyes to take in her pale complexion in the mirror, noting the dark circles under her eyes. Get used to it, she silently berated herself; this is going to be going on for a while. Just as she was splashing some water on her face the doorbell downstairs sounded. She quickly dried herself off and bounded down the stairs, although she didn't really feel up to moving quickly.

" Who is it?" she asked Sally, who was sitting on the couch staring at the black TV. If her voice came out a little hoarse neither of them acknowledged it.

"Dunno."

Joss paused. "You didn't check? You always check." She was surprised; Sally usually had to know who was at the door before anyone else.

"Old Sally checked," was the cryptic reply.

Joss rolled her eyes and turned to the door, putting her friend's cryptic remark and odd behavior out of her mind for the moment. She hoped that the ghost was only having a bad day and something else wasn't wrong.

Opening the door she came face-to-face with Aidan accompanied by a hunched over figure, which was covered in a blanket.

"I need you to let us in," Aidan said urgently, drawing her gaze away from the figure and back to him.

"You mean you need me to invite him in," she looked at the figure uncertainly. "I thought we didn't do that."

"This is different. This is Henry. Uh," he took off his sunglasses and looked at her cautiously, lowering his tone. "It was a long time ago but I _made_ him Joss, he's my son."

She nodded, glancing at the figure, no Henry, again and finally noticed that the one hand, which she could see, was completely devoid of skin. "Did you make him without skin?" she looked at Aidan in disbelief. She so didn't need this on top of everything that was going on with Nate being changed, which Aidan had not really been sympathetic about, and well…

"He needs a place where I know he'll be safe," he spoke quickly, trying to convince her. "That's here. So please."

She looked at him for a moment, trying to ignore the pleading in his eyes, the urgency, which pervaded him. But she couldn't. Closing her eyes briefly she sighed, "Fine."

Aidan's eyes widened and he made a gesture with his hand, "Please? A little bit more huh?"

She sighed again, "Enter," she said in exasperation. "I invite thee, me casa es su casa."

Aidan pushed past her, bringing Henry with him. You're welcome, she thought sarcastically. "I can't deal with this, I'm late for work." As she rushed down the stairs and down the street she couldn't help but curse Aidan's timing; she had really wanted to talk to him, but apparently that wasn't happening. Still, maybe there was someone she could talk out her fears with, to some extent.

At work she avoided running into Nate, not even trying to make it look like she wasn't trying to stay away from him and when it was time for her break she went outside and sat on a bench, before taking her cell phone out and dialing a familiar number.

"Emily speaking."

Joss almost sighed audibly, but instead bit her lip slightly, closing her eyes in relief that she had answered, before she spoke.

"Hey Em, you got a minute or five?"

"Oh my god, Joss!" there was a pause, "I didn't even think you had my cell number any more." She didn't know if she was joking; with her sister it could be either way.

"Of course I do. I'm sorry I haven't called you or Mom in a while, I just…I've been swamped with…" she took a shuddering breath.

"Are you okay?" The concern in her little sister's voice was enough to cause her to tear up slightly.

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm just really glad to be talking to you. I didn't really know who else to talk to this about, I mean I can't talk to Aidan, he's being an ass of late, and I don't want to talk to Nate and I definitely was not going to call Mom…"

"Joss," there was fond exasperation in her tone. "You're rambling. What's wrong?"

"I'm uh, I think I might be…I'm pretty sure I'm pregnant." And there it was, the words finally out in the open. It was only a slight relief though.

The only response was static and silence from the other end of the line. She knew that if Emily were there in person, she would have that half frown, half raised eyebrow look that usually came upon her when something really surprised her.

"Em? Are you still there?"

"Are you sure? You're preggo, for sure? You took at test and everything?"

"Yeah, I took two tests. So I'm either pregnant or have a tumor and given everything I would say that its not likely to be a tumor."

"Wow. This is major; mum is going to flip! What does Aidan say?"

Joss frowned, "Why would he say anything? I mean we barely talk anymore, its like ships in the night and whatever other…metaphor you want to use."

"So its not his kid?"

Joss blinked in disbelief; she was sure her mouth was hanging open. "No Emily, Aidan did not get me pregnant, he was not present at all when the act took place. Why would you think, I mean what possible indication could there have been that Aidan…" she sighed in exasperation.

"Chill big sister. I just thought that maybe you guys had gotten together by now; I mean the chemistry is there, even Mom and Dad noticed it when they met him. So whose the father?"

"His name is Nate." Suddenly she was feeling very tired. "We've been dating for a few months, but I guess we really haven't talked since I met him, so you wouldn't know."

"Well if you called me or better yet came to visit…"

Joss smiled slightly and shook her head. Her sister would never change, but that was reassuring. She had so few constant things in her life. They ended their call shortly after, but not before Joss extracted a promise that Emily would not tell their parents what was going on.

Later, as she was pushing a patient in a wheel chair back from x-ray, she saw Nate at a med cart writing on a chart. She watched him for a moment, her resolve steeling. She couldn't keep this from him; it wouldn't be right or fair. Getting the attention of an orderly she passed the patient off and slowly approached her boyfriend.

"Hey,"

He looked up at her and then back down to his chart; she could tell from the slight furrowing of his brow that he was probably mad at her.

"Hey there you," she sighed, "You're annoyed. And mad. You're annoyed and mad and you should be. I'm so sorry-"

"You've been avoiding me for three days Joss." He looked at her.

"I'm so sorry."

"What happened?"

She hesitated and he shook his head, his expression speaking of annoyance. " You can't say. Or rather you won't."

She reached out and touched his hand. "Nate, I am so sorry. All I can say is that I had a lot on my mind and I'm just, I am sorry."

"You feel guilty, still, about what happened, about scratching me." He lowered his voice slightly so no one listening in could hear that part.

"I will always feel guilty about that," she said truthfully. "But that's not it."

"Then what? You don't need to feel guilty anymore Joss, I forgive you; it was an accident. Its done and we have to live with it now but-"

"I'm pregnant."

They stared at each other and now it was him that was gripping her hand. "You're what? Pregnant?"

She nodded.

"As in with my baby?"

"Really? I hope this is just surprise taking over and you are not implying that I was sleeping around. Of course with your baby." Men, why did they have to ask stupid questions at the most inappropriate times?

"Why didn't you tell me? I mean I can only assume this is why you've been avoiding me. Were you afraid or something? Please do not turn us into cliché's here doe eyes."

Joss shook her head. "I was scared, surprised. I didn't think I could get pregnant."

"Well it wasn't exactly like we were being careful," he reminded, a bit sardonically.

She put it down to shock at her confession. "I know that Nate; I meant that I didn't think I could get pregnant at all. I didn't think I was capable of that anymore." She gave him a meaningful look, hoping that she wouldn't have to come right out and say it.

He seemingly caught on, because he nodded. "So what are we going to do?"

She shrugged. "I am going to go home or somewhere, because my shift is done. And you are going to finish your shift. And tomorrow we will go to our lockers and change and after that we will pull ourselves together and go from there. I just wanted you to know what was going on." She started to pull her hand away, but he didn't loosen his grip, instead using it to pull her in and place a kiss on her forehead. "Go to my place, you know where the key is. We will talk about this," he promised. "I'm not going anywhere doe eyes."

She nodded and he let her go, watching her until she was down the hall and out of his sight.

She did go to Nate's and when he got home they sat on his couch and talked and she told him her fears about the baby and what could happen. There was only one thing she didn't say and she wasn't really ready to admit it, even to herself. The next day, Nate had to work again, but she didn't, she slept late and then made her way home, coming up on the house to find Aidan talking to a man in a toque and some men in coveralls moving boxes into a truck.

As soon as Aidan looked at her she knew something was wrong; he looked jittery, his eyes slightly glassy looking, his shoulders slightly hunched and his hands shoved in his pockets. The other man turned to see what Aidan was looking at and smiled. She stopped in front of them and extended her hand, feeling slightly ill at ease although the man was giving her a friendly enough look.

"Hey, I'm Joss," she introduced as he shook her hand in a firm grip.

"We met yesterday," he said. "Thanks for the invite."

She let go of his hand in disbelief; how had he healed so fast?

"You're Henry. You look so much better." She looked at Aidan and he looked away guiltily and she knew, she just knew that he had done something.

"Catch you later," Henry patted Aidan on the back and then touched Joss' shoulder slightly in thanks and was gone.

Aidan still wouldn't meet her gaze and Joss found herself pushing down nausea. If she could have seen her face then, she would have been surprised to see how angry she looked. Later, Aidan would find himself reflecting that he himself had never seen her so angry and disgusted, angrier even then when she had yelled at him for belittling her problems.

"Only one thing would make him heal that fast," she hissed as she stepped closer to him. Aidan still would not look at her. " What happened in there?" from the corner of her eye she could see the men moving a refrigerator box onto the truck and it all just clicked. She closed her eyes briefly in pain and yes disgust, before looking at him again. She could forgive him so much, look past what he has done and could do, her love for him and her belief in him strong, but this was too much. It was defiling the one thing that was neutral, that was hers without pretense, the one place she was safe to just breath and be herself.

"I know I've screwed up, but I have never brought it here." She pointed at the house angrily.

"I didn't have any other place to go." He was upset, perhaps disgusted with himself, but she didn't care. She was done caring.

"You know how many places I've got where there is no pretense? Where just being isn't exhausting? One. This house, with you and Sally." She couldn't believe this; didn't want to believe it.

"Joss," he was desperate for her to understand, "I almost have my freedom for once and for all, but I told you things could get messy."

She shook her head, "No, no, no. There is messy and then there is this, Aidan." She didn't even want to be near him anymore.

"This is never going to happen again," he promised, again the desperate tone coming into his voice. " We're going to get it back to the way it was, don't worry about it."

They looked at each other, staring, reading the others emotions. She wanted to believe him, but she was beginning to wonder if she could. What would it say about her, she wondered, if she just let him get by with this, with hurting her again, breaking the faith that she had in him, more trust than she even had in Nate and she was pregnant with his child! The reminder of the being growing within her settled it. It wasn't about what she wanted anymore.

"Please," he pleaded. "Don't turn away from me Joss."

She closed her eyes and took a steadying breath. "Its too late Aidan." And with those words she turned and moved up the steps and into the house, aware that he was close behind her, probably about to try and convince her that it wasn't too late. Whatever more they would have said to each other though was pushed from their minds as the first thing they both saw when they entered the living room was Sally putting her hand through her friend Nick's chest. Joss was only able to stare in shock, but Aidan apparently had more faculties about him.

"Sally!" He moved in front of Joss and advanced towards the Kitchen, "Sally, Sally let him go," he said it gently, as if he didn't want to scare her. Joss was close behind him, although he kept a hand out keeping her from moving past or beside him.

" You don't want to do this," she cautioned her friend, but Sally just looked at her with a strange malevolent light in her eyes.

"I think I do. Oh and guys? Sally isn't here anymore." And then she pushed her hand all the way through Nick and withdrew it quickly, causing him to shred apart in a cloud of green light.

This truly is the day from hell, Joss thought as she was finally able to move away from Aidan's protective arm.

"What did you do?" she breathed.

"Oh, he had to go. They all did."

"You don't get to decide that." What the hell was going on with her two best friends? Everything was becoming so topsey turvey. Aidan's hand came down on her shoulder, again holding her back, and when she looked back at him he shook his head slightly, warning her not to go any further.

"Somebody has to," Sally said in an almost pleasant voice; it was condescending in its sweetness. She began walking towards them. "Somebody has to tell them that they don't belong here anymore. That its time to stop holding on."

"Sally, you belong here with us," Aidan assured her, again in that gentle tone.

"Awe," her voice came out sounding demonic now, "that's so sweet. You sound just like Nick."

A wind began to kick up, throwing things around in the living room as she advanced on them and they moved away from her. Joss fell back and was able to right herself enough to throw herself over the couch and duck behind it for shelter, while Aidan ended up on the floor by the fireplace. Peeking over the couch she saw him grab the iron poker and stand quickly, swiping it through Sally and dispersing her. The wind stopped and Joss pulled herself back to her feet. They looked at each other, both breathing hard from adrenaline, for the moment their earlier dispute put aside, and then looked around trying to see where she could have gone.

"On the Stairs," Joss looked behind her to see her friend lying in the spot where she had died.

"We need to, to do something, before she wakes up."

"Salt," Aidan ran for the kitchen and grabbed the box of sea salt from the cupboard. "We need to encircle her in this," he explained as he moved towards the stairs. Joss followed and sat on the steps above where her friend lay, as he outlined her body with the white powder. He then joined her in her perch, bringing the fire poker along and handing her a skillet. And they waited.

Eventually Sally opened her eyes and, seeing them looking down at her, spoke softly, "What's going on?" Her voice was barely a whisper.

"We're not sure yet," Aidan told her cautiously.

"Are you, are you OK?" Joss asked, worry over taking her. Sally seemed back to normal, but what they had witnessed was truly bizarre.

Sally nodded and licked her lips. "I think…I can't…can you um."

Joss started to stand, "Yeah, of course." She seemed fine now; they could probably let her out.

"No, no, no." Aidan grabbed her arm, pushing her back down.

"What?"

"Guys," Sally pleaded, "Let me out. Come on."

As they looked on her expression began to change and Joss was glad that Aidan had held her back.

"I SAID LET ME OUT!" Again a demonic voice burst forth from the ghost.

"Oh my god," Joss breathed, taking up her skillet again. "Oh my god Aidan, what do we do?"

They looked at each other, the sound of the demonic screaming coming from their friend drowning out everything else.

"We figure out a way to fix this," he told her. "It can be fixed. It has to be."

Joss wanted to agree but really sometimes things, which are broken, can never really be fixed.


End file.
